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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 




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THE YULE LOG 



THE 

BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 



BY 

Jf WALKER McSPADDEN 

Author op "Stories from Wagner," "Stories from Dickens,' 
"Opera Synopses," Etc 



'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy' 



NEW YORK 
THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 






^o'^ 



COP\1lIGHT, 1917, 

By THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY 



NOV 22 1917 



©OIA.478173 



PREFACE 

We Americans are so accustomed to taking 
our holidays as a matter of course — to treating 
them merely as rest and play days — that we 
constantly run the risk of losing sight of their 
significance. When another holiday is forward, 
we are not so likely to say, "Let's see, what are 
we commemorating this time?" as '*I wonder 
if it will be a good day for the golf tourna- 
ment?'' 

Nevertheless, our holidays are becoming 
sadly misused if they are degenerating into 
mere play days. They are, in fact, milestones 
in our national and religious life, marking the 
progress of certain ideas. Even when labelled 
with some one man's name, such as Columbus, 
or Washington, or Lincoln, they stand none 



PREFACE 

the less for the idea behind the individual ; and 
what that idea is, one may well pause to con- 
sider. 

If our holidays were play days, and nothing 
else, there would be more virtue in the plan 
recently suggested by a man in Montclair, New 
Jersey, who advocated placing each holiday on 
its nearest Saturday, and spacing them out to 
come at least one in each month. His plan was 
promptly voted down by most of the news- 
papers commenting upon it, because of two 
facts — first, the significance of the date would 
be destroyed, and second, the charm of having 
one's holidays coming at unexpected times 
would be lost. 

Holidays in America fall into three general 
groups, — religious, patriotic, and topical. The 
religious holidays include Christmas, Easter, 
All Saints' Day and perhaps one or two others 
which have crossed over from the Church cal- 
endar into general observance. Our patriotic 



PREFACE 

days include Lincoln's Birthday, Washington's 
Birthday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, 
and others of that stripe. The third class 
which has grown rapidly of recent years, and 
may be called topical, includes Arbor Day, 
Bird Day, May Day, Mothers' Day, Labor 
Day, and the like. 

Because of this very diversity of subject, one 
may lose sight of their purpose ; for, on the one 
hand, we have a group of time-honored dates 
that we have come to accept as a matter of 
course; and, on the other, a group so recent 
that we may not be familiar with them all. 

The literature which has grown up around 
the holidays, while considerable, is widely scat- 
tered. Beyond an excellent anthology by Ed- 
ward M. Deems, "Holy-days and Holidays," 
which, however, does not include material on 
some of our more recent anniversaries, the 
reader would have to make an extended search 
for facts about them all. Mr. R. H. Schauffler 



PREiFACE 

has prepared an excellent series of single vol- 
umes, each book devoted to one holiday. Other 
older and general sources are Chambers' 
"Book of Days," Walsh's "Curiosities of 
Popular Customs," and Brand's "Popular An- 
tiquities." The author wishes to acknowledge 
his indebtedness to all the above, as well as 
scattered writings. He has also been aided no 
little by Mr. Albert Porter, whose wide knowl- 
edge of the older holidays, based upon his birth 
and residence in England, has been invaluable 
in the preparation of the historical matter. 

To present such facts in a brief usable way 
in a style adapted to younger readers, and thus 
aid in a deeper appreciation of the meaning 
back of our holidays, is the purpose of this 
little book. While in no sense a complete treat- 
ment, it is hoped it will prove suggestive. 
Many rich veins of material were uncovered, 
often leading into other lands, for the love of 
observing days is as old as the human race. 



PREFACE 

While this could not be dealt with in detail, in 
a work of the present scope, we have tried to 
include much that the general reader might 
demand. And if only a small part of the in- 
terest in the subject taken by the writer is 
transmitted to the reader, we shall feel amply 

repaid. 

J. W. McS. 

Montclair, New Jersey- 
July 4, 1917 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

New Year's Day i 

Lincoln's Birthday 17 

St. Valentine's Day 37 

Washington's Birthday 51 

St. Patrick's Day 69 

Good Friday and Easter 81 

May Day 103 

Arbor Day 115 

Bird Day 133 

Mothers' Day 145 

Memorial Day 159 

Flag Day 171 

Independence Day 187 

Labor Day 201 

Columbus Day 213 

Hallowe'en 233 

All Saints' Day 249 

Election Day 259 

Thanksgiving 271 

Christmas 289 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



y 



The Yule Log Frontispiece 

PAGE 

New Year's Eve 6 w^ 

House in which Abraliam Lincoln was bom 20 *^ 

President Lincoln and his son Thomas ("Tad").. 26^^ 

Washington's Birthday 57 "' 

Easter Egg Rolling 96 -■ 

The May Pole 108 ^ 

Memorial Day 169 ^ 

Flag Day 184 

Drafting the Declaration of Independence 194 

Signing tlie Declaration of Independence ^95 ' 

Columbus 227 

Hallowe'en 246 

Pilgrims on the Way to Church 2 74 v^ 

Thanksgiving Pies 287 "' 

Christmas Morning 296 



NEW YEAR'S DAY 
(January i) 



NEW YEAR'S MORNING 

Only a night from old to new ! 

Only a night and so much wrought ! 

The Old Year's heart all weary grew, 

But said : "The New Year rest has brought." 

The Old Year's heart its hopes laid down, 

As in a grave; but, trusting, said: 

"The blossoms of the New Year's crown 

Bloom from the ashes of the dead." 

The Old Year's heart was full of greed ; 

With selfishness it longed and ached. 

And cried : "I have not half I need. 

My thirst is bitter and unslaked. 

But to the New Year's generous hand 

All gifts in plenty shall return ; 

True loving it shall understand ; 

By all my failures it shall learn. 

I have been reckless; it shall be 

Quiet and calm and pure of life. 

I was a slave ; it shall go free. 

And find sweet peace where I leave strife." 

Helen Hunt Jackson. 



NEW YEAR'S DAY 

"A happy New Year to you !*' 
"The same to you and many of them !" 
How pleasantly the greeting strikes the ear, 
whether in town or country, in the home or at 
the office, on the train or on the ferry! He 
who finds no pleasure either in giving or in 
receiving it must be nothing less than what our 
grandfathers used to call a curmudgeon — a 
churl, a man with a grouch. According to one 
of the old poets, so general was the spirit of 
good feeling on this day of days that 

Even stranger dogs 
Meeting with bristling back, soon lay aside 
Their snarling aspect, and in sportive chase 
Friendly become and wallow in the snow. 

There is no other holiday that is so widely 
celebrated in the different countries of the earth 

3 



4 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

as New Year's Day. Not only among English- 
speaking people like ourselves, but among Mex- 
icans, Turks, Greeks, Russians, Chinese, Jap- 
anese, Persians, and Hawaiians, is the day 
given up to festivities and rejoicing. The new 
year does not begin on the first of January in 
every country, but on whatever date New 
Year's Day is celebrated, one and the same 
idea is associated with it — that of good will 
and kindly feeling, often expressed in quaint 
customs and oftener still in the giving and re- 
ceiving of presents. How old the custom of 
celebrating New Year's Day is will probably 
never be known; but we do know that three 
thousand years before Christ was born the 
people who lived in the ancient country of 
Babylonia kept a New Year festival, which 
they called "Zalmuk," the rejoicings in which 
lasted for eleven or twelve days. In those old 
times the people always put plenty of spirit 
into all their celebrations. 




NEW YEARS EVE 



NEW YEAR'S DAY 5 

Another thing we know about New Year's 
Day is that long, long ago, among the old 
Romans the year had only ten months and be- 
gan with the month of March. By and by, the 
months of January and February were added 
and the year was made to begin on January 
1st, which was held sacred to the god Janus 
Bifrons, or "two-faced Janus," so called be- 
cause he was supposed to look back on the old 
year and to look forward to the new one. 
When the Romans became Christians, the fes- 
tival of New Year was still kept, but in place 
of the old practices connected with it, many of 
which were of a very objectionable kind, the 
Church ordered that the day should be one "of 
prayer, fasting, and humiliation." Over in 
England the ancient heathen priests called 
Druids used to scrape the mistletoe from the 
oaks and distribute boughs or sprays of it 
among the people on New Year's Day. 

During the last three or four hundred years 



6 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

the festivities and merrymakings connected 
with the New Year may be said to have begun 
on New Year's Eve. In certain parts of Eng- 
land and Scotland it was customary directly 
the clock struck twelve on New Year's Eve for 
the young people to rush off to the nearest 
spring of water. Whoever first tasted the 
water then drawn, which was called "the cream 
of the well," might look for good luck during 
the coming year. Another curious New Year's 
Eve custom was that of "apple-howling," as it 
was called. Boys used to go into the apple 
orchards and standing round a tree, would rap 
the trunk with sticks, singing the while : 

Stand fast root, bear well top, 

Pray God send us a good howling crop; 

Every twig, apples big; 

Every bough, apples enou [gh], 

Hats full, caps full, 

Full quarter sacks full. 

One of the greatly enjoyed practices in Scot- 
land was that of the Wassail Bowl. Wassail 



NEW YEAR'S DAY 7 

is a word made up of the two Saxon words 
Wass hael, meaning "To your health!" Di- 
rectly the clock had struck twelve the head of 
the house would sip of the warm drink in the 
bowl to the healths of those around him, and 
pass it to the rest. Then, taking a hot kettle- 
ful of the beverage and some refreshments, 
such as buns, bread, and cheese, the company 
would visit friends' houses. Oftentimes on 
New Year's Eve the streets of the city of Edin- 
burgh would be more crowded than they were 
usually in the middle of the day. On New 
Year's Day itself the boys would go from 
house to house, asking for "eats" or money. 
Sometimes a funeral would be held over the 
Old Year, and then the boys would sing the 
following ditty before each house at which 
they called : 

I wish you a merry Christmas 

And a Happy New Year, 
A pocketful of money, 



8 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

And a cellar full of beer, 
And a good fat pig 

To serve you all the year. 
Ladies and gentlemen 

Sitting by the fire, 
Pity us poor boys 

Out in the mire. 

The following one was not quite so polite : 

Get up, good wife, and don't be lazy. 

And deal out your cakes and cheese while 

you're here; 
For the time will come when you'll be dead. 
And neither need your cheese nor bread. 

Similar customs were common in different 
parts of England. There were also many 
strange superstitions connected with New 
Year's Day. It was considered very unlucky 
for any one to go out of the house until some 
one had entered it. In Lancashire it was very 
bad luck for a person to give another a light on 
New Year's morning. In the Isle of Man the 
first person to enter a house on New Year's 
Day was called the qualtagh. It he were a 



NEW YEAR'S DAY 9 

dark man, no matter how ugly he was, he 
would bring good luck for the rest of the year ; 
but if a fair man, no matter how good-looking, 
he would be the bringer of all sorts of misfor- 
tune. It was also unlucky to give out anything 
before you had received something. As they 
used to say in Nottinghamshire, 

Take out and take in, 
Bad luck is sure to begin ; 
But take in and take out, 
Good luck will come about. 

Like St. Valentine's Day, New Year's Day 
was a great time for the giving and receiving 
of presents. The kings and queens of Eng- 
land, although supposed to be very rich, were 
really not so, and some of them let it be known 
among the lords and ladies, and the various 
persons about the court, that they expected 
presents on New Year's Day; and of course 
that was equal to a command. So many of 
these kings received enormous sums as pres- 



lo THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

ents on that day. In a country house in Eng- 
land there is a record of the presents received 
by King Henry VIII one New Year's Day, 
which showed that they amounted to nearly 
eight hundred pounds, that is about four thou- 
sand dollars in our money. The famous queen 
of England, Elizabeth, who, although the 
people used to call her "Good Queen Bess,*' 
was of a grasping disposition, used to receive 
a most extraordinary collection of New Year's 
presents, such as silk stockings, petticoats, 
mantles, gowns, besides bracelets, necklaces, 
and caskets of precious stones worth thousands 
of dollars. Among ordinary persons one com- 
mon form of present on New Year's Day was 
that of "pin-money." In the times of which 
we have been speaking, pins made of wire were 
very expensive and consequently were very 
little used. Many persons used skewers of 
wood. So on New Year's Day it was the cus-* 
torn for men to give their wives and daughters 



NEW YEAR'S DAY ii 

money for pins and knick-knacks. And this is 
how the term "pin-money** came into use. 

An excellent idea that has arisen in connec- 
tion with New Year's Day is that it is a good 
time to make "resolutions." On this turning 
point of the year we decide to make a new 
start as to certain habits — to do something in 
the New Year which we ought to have done in 
the old. It seems to be the proper time to be 
better and to do better. In our day and time 
the making of these good resolutions for our- 
selves has taken the place of gifts to others; 
and in this one respect perhaps selfishness is 
best. 

A graceful Colonial custom which is still 
kept up in many parts of the South is the ex- 
changing of calls. Great preparations are made 
for these receptions, which are often in the 
afternoon, and open house is extended to all 
who choose to enter. It is the time of all times 
for renewing friendships. This general cus- 



12 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

torn in certain localities reminds us of the 
Chinese who make their New Year the greatest 
of festal times, when they not only pay their 
social debts, but their financial debts as well. 
Among the Jews the New Year does not 
begin on the first of January, but on the first 
of Tishri, the seventh month of the Jewish 
calendar. In 191 7 this falls on September 17. 
New Year's Day is known as the Feast of 
Trumpets, the reason for which name you may 
see in the Old Testament, Leviticus xvi. It is 
the beginning of a very solemn time, leading 
up to the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, 
as the Jews call it, which is the most serious 
day of the whole year. On Jewish tables on 
New Year's Day you will see grapes and other 
fruit and honey. The bread is dipped in the 
honey and is eaten after this benediction or 
blessing is said: *'May it please the Lord our 
God and the God of our fathers to renew for 
us a good and sweet year." 



NEW YEAR'S DAY 13 

In the city of New York, the great celebra- 
tion of the year's turning comes on New Year's 
Eve. The festival has grown to be a sort of 
carnival. In no other city in the world is there 
anything like it for numbers and noise. Soon 
after nine o'clock there are long lines of people 
on the streets, in Broadway in particular ; grad- 
ually the numbers increase until, swelled by the 
outcoming theatre crowds, there are probably 
four or five hundred thousand persons, many 
of whom are armed with whistles, cowbells, 
and horns, the blowing and tooting and ringing 
of which combine to make a most unmusical 
chorus. At a distance of about every six yards 
there is a policeman who has all he can do to 
keep the crowd from getting on to the road- 
way. It is a good-natured crowd ; and although 
a person might not like to be tickled in the neck 
by a feather duster, no one thinks of getting 
angry at the stranger who has a little fun in 
this way. Meanwhile the famous chimes of 



14 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

Trinity and the other churches are peaHng out 
old favorites, such as "Old Folks at Home" 
and "Auld Lang Syne." But a minute or two 
before twelve o'clock a strange stillness falls 
on the people. Then, as the clocks strike, there 
is a tremendous outburst from the street, while 
from New York Bay and from the North and 
East rivers come the salute to the New Year 
from the throats of steam whistles on every 
steamship, tug, and any other kind of vessel 
that can raise a blast. In all the surrounding 
towns the whistles screech. The whistling con- 
tinues for a full five minutes, until it would 
seem that the world was coming to an end. 

In contrast with this huge noisy street crowd 
we find two indoor throngs. One is within the 
dining-rooms of the big hotels filled to over- 
flowing with their thousands of guests, where 
toasting and revelry are at their maddest, as 
the clock strikes twelve. The other is found in 
the churches, where a silent throng remain on 



NEW YEAR'S DAY 15 

their knees in prayer or meditation, while the 
organ softly plays, and the chimes overhead — 

Ring out the old, ring in the new ; 

Ring, happy bells, across the snow ; 

The year is going, let him go ; 
Ring out the false, ring in the true. 



LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 
(February 12) 



17 



TO THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM 

LINCOLN 

i86s 

Oh, slow to smite and swift to spare, 
Gentle and merciful and just! 

Who, in the fear of God, didst bear 
The sword of power — a nation's trust. 

In sorrow by the bier we stand, 
Amid the awe that hushes all. 

And speak the anguish of a land 
That shook with horror at thy fall. 

Thy task is done — the bond are free ; 

We bear thee to an honored grave. 
Whose noblest monument shall be 

The broken fetters of the slave. 

Pure was thy life ; its bloody close 

Hath placed thee with the sons of light, 

Among the noble host of those 

Who perished in the cause of right. 

William Cullen Bryant. 



i8 



LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

Abraham Lincoln has been called the "Sec- 
ond Father" of his country, Washington being 
the "First." Each of them stood at the helm 
while a great war was being waged to decide 
the life or death of the nation; and so it is 
fitting that the birthdays of these two Presi- 
dents should be remembered by public celebra- 
tions. 

Lincoln was the sixteenth President of the 
United States. He was one of the most re- 
markable men in the history, not only of Amer- 
ica, but of the world. If such a career as Lin- 
coln's had been described in a story, many per- 
sons would have said it could not have hap- 
pened in real life; and one cannot read the 
account of his life without astonishment at the 

19 



20 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

difficulties he overcame, and of admiration for 
the pluck which enabled him to rise from the 
humblest beginning to the highest position 
that any American can hold. 

Of Lincoln's early years we have the follow- 
ing account, written by himself : "I was born 
February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Ky. 
My parents were both born in Virginia, of 
undistinguished families — second families, per- 
haps I should say. My mother, who died in my 
tenth year, was of a family of the name of 
Hanks. My father, at the death of his father, 
was but six years of age, and grew up literally 
without any education. He removed from 
Kentucky to what is now Spencer County, 
Ind., in my eighth year. We reached our new 
home about the time the State came into the 
Union. It was a wild region, with many bears 
and other wild animals still in the woods. 
There I grew up. There were some schools, 
so-called, but no qualification was ever re- 



LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 21 

quired of a teacher beyond 'reading writin', 
and cipherin', to the rule of three. If a 
straggler, supposed to understand Latin, hap- 
pened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was 
looked upon as a wizard. There was abso- 
lutely nothing to excite ambition for educa- 
tion. Of course, when I came of age, I did 
not know much. Still, somehow, I could read, 
write, and cipher to the rule of three, but that 
was all. I have not been to school since. The 
little advance I now have upon this store of 
education I have picked up from time to time 
under the pressure of necessity. 

"If any personal description of me is thought 
desirable, it may be said I am in height six feet 
four inches, nearly ; lean in flesh, weighing, on 
an average, one hundred and eighty pounds; 
dark complexion, with coarse black hair and 
gray eyes — no other marks or brands recol- 
lected." 

From other sources it is known that Lincoln 



22 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

was born in a little log cabin ; that he lived for 
fourteen years in the Indiana home to which 
his father had moved in 1816; and that in the 
autumn of 181 8 his mother died there. In 
1820 Lincoln's father married Mrs. Sally John- 
son, a woman with a kind heart who, Lincoln 
himself said, was the guide of his life and 
taught him all that he knew about the Bible. 
In March, 1830, the Lincoln family moved 
from Indiana. They packed their furniture 
and goods in wagons, drawn by oxen, bade 
adieu to their old home, and took up a two 
weeks' march over untraveled roads, across 
mountains, swamps, and through dense for- 
ests, until they reached a spot on the Sangamon 
River, ten miles from Decatur, Illinois, where 
they built another home. Abraham Lincoln 
was now twenty-one years old and anxious to 
make his own way in the world. Before leav- v 
ing his parents, however, he saw them com- 
fortably settled in their new home, and he him- 



LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 23 

self split enough rails to enclose the house and 
ten acres of ground. 

In the summer of 1831 Lincoln was hired 
by a merchant of Springfield, Illinois, to take, 
together with his stepbrother and uncle, a boat- 
load of corn, pork, and live pigs to New Or- 
leans. The three men had first to build the 
boat for the merchant, as he had none. They 
floated it on the Sangamon River, but when 
loaded it was too low in the water to go over 
the dam at New Salem, and it grounded, caus- 
ing a delay of a day. Lincoln made the ac- 
quaintance of the New Salem people, with the 
result that at the close of the trip he settled in 
the village. Two things in connection with this 
trip are worth noting. One shows how Lin- 
coln overcame a difficulty. He had to take on 
board a herd of pigs in the course of the trip, 
but the animals would not go on board. Corn 
was strewn on the ground to coax them; but 
this did no good. At last Lincoln, determined 



24 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

not to be outdone, caught the pigs one by one 
and carried them in his arms to the boat. The 
other incident was his visit to the slave market 
in New Orleans. There he saw negro men, 
women, boys, and girls, standing on a bench 
around the walls of the room, the planters look- 
ing into their mouths, as they would look at 
the teeth of a horse or a mule. The auction- 
eer's hammer fell, and a husband and wife were 
forever separated. Children were sold sepa- 
rately and would never again behold their 
father and mother. This sight of slavery so 
aroused Lincoln, that he is said to have ex- 
claimed, "If ever I get a chance to hit that 
thing, ril hit it hard!" 

Lincoln settled in New Salem, and during 
the six years that he lived there he was at dif- 
ferent times a clerk, county surveyor, post- 
master — he is said to have carried the post- 
office in his hat, as the mail came in only once 
a week — and partner in a grocery business. It 



LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 25 

was while clerking in a grocery store there that 
he gained the name of "Honest Abe," and from 
such acts as the following: One evening he 
found that by an error in calculation he had 
overcharged a woman six and a quarter cents. 
When he closed the store he walked to the 
woman's house, a distance of two or three 
miles, and returned her the sum. 

Lincoln made many friends in New Salem. 
They respected him for his uprightness and 
admired him for his geniality. He sympathized 
with the unfortunate and those in sorrow ; and 
all confided in him, honored and loved him. 
He was a witty talker and had an unlimited 
fund of anecdotes. He was chosen captain of 
a company in the Black Hawk War in 1832; 
and although in the same year he was defeated 
for the IlHnois Legislature, two years later he 
was elected, and for three terms following. 
The remarkable thing about this was that Lin- 
coln, as he himself said, had practically no 



26 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

education. All his schooling together would 
probably not have made a year. The only 
books which he had were the Bible, Shakes- 
peare, ^sop's "Fables," "Robinson Crusoe,'' 
"Pilgrim's Progress," a history of the United 
States, and Weems's "Life of Washington," 
and these he read and read over again. Not 
deterred by his small schooling, Lincoln de- 
cided to study law, and was fortunate enough 
to make the acquaintance, in 1834, of Mr. John 
T. Stuart of Springfield, Illinois, who loaned 
him such law-books as he required. Lincoln 
sometimes walked from New Salem to Spring- 
field, about twenty miles, to obtain them. He 
studied hard and with such good results that in 
1837 he became a lawyer and soon had a pros- 
perous business. The same year he moved to 
Springfield, and there married, in 1842, Miss 
Mary Todd. They had four children, all sons, 
only one of which grew up to manhood — 
this was Robert T. Lincoln, the eldest son, 



r" 




Copjright, 190(), by McClure, Phillips & Co. 

PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND HIS SON THOMAS ("TAD"). 
From a photograph. 



LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 27 

who was afterward appointed Ambassador to 
England. 

In 1846 Lincoln was elected to Congress, and 
six years later took a decided stand against 
slavery. In 1858 he challenged Stephen A. 
Douglas to seven debates in a contest for a 
seat in the United States Senate. Lincoln was 
nominated by the Republicans, and Douglas by 
the Democrats. Lincoln was defeated, but the 
speeches that he made in the course of the 
debates had produced a great impression on the 
minds of many prominent and influential men 
in the political world, and in i860, at the Re- 
publican National Convention, he was nomi- 
nated for the presidency of the United States. 
In the following November he was elected 
President. On February 11, 1861, he left 
Springfield. The people along the route flocked 
to the stations to see him and hear his words. 
At all points he was greeted as the President 
of the people. The Southern States, knowing 



28 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

how firmly the new President stood against 
slavery, prepared for war; and less than six 
weeks after his inauguration, Fort Sumter, in 
Charleston Harbor, was bombarded and the 
great Civil War began, which was to last for 
four long years. 

On January i, 1863, Lincoln issued his fa- 
mous proclamation freeing five million slaves, 
the last sentence of this document reading: 
"And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an 
act of justice, warranted by the Constitution 
upon military necessity, I invoke the consider- 
ate judgment of mankind, and the gracious 
favor of Almighty God." In November, 1864, 
Lincoln was again chosen President, and on 
April 9, 1865, the Civil War ended by the sur- 
render of General Lee at Appomattox. The 
four years of the war had been very trying 
ones for the President. It has been well said 
of him : "Through four years of terrible war 
his guiding star was justice and mercy. He 



LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 29 

was sometimes censured by officers of the army 
for granting pardons, but he could not resist an 
appeal for the life of a soldier. He was the 
friend of the soldiers, and felt and acted toward 
them like a father. Even workingmen could 
write him letters of encouragement and receive 
appreciative words in reply.'* Toward the 
close of the war Lincoln set himself to work 
on plans for restoring harmony and union be- 
tween the people of the South and the people 
of the North. But he did not live to see the 
results of his labors. On April 14, only five 
days after Lee's surrender, the President, with 
Mrs. Lincoln and a few friends, went to Ford's 
Theatre, in Washington, to see the play "Our 
American Cousin." Just as the third act was 
about to begin, the President was shot by John 
Wilkes Booth, an actor. He died soon after 
seven o'clock the next morning without having 
regained consciousness. After lying in state 
in the Capitol, the body was taken from Wash- 



30 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

ington to Springfield, Illinois, and was laid to 
rest in Oak Ridge Cemetery. 

Since his death the honor in which Lincoln 
is held by Americans has increased with the 
years. It has been well said of him: "Abra- 
ham Lincoln needs.no marble shaft to perpetu- 
ate his name: his words are the most endur- 
ing monument, and will live forever in the 
hearts of the people." 

Washington's birthplace was destroyed by 
fire. Lincoln's has been more fortunate ; it has 
been preserved and now belongs to the Amer- 
ican nation. The New York Times gives the 
following account of the President's acceptance 
of Lincoln's first home: "On September 4, 
1 91 6, a small and semi-barren Kentucky farm 
two miles from Hodgenville became a nation's 
shrine, when President Wilson on behalf of the 
American people accepted the birthplace of 
Abraham Lincoln as a gift from the Lincoln 
Farm Association. The rude log cabin where 



LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 31 

the great emancipator was born is now housed 
in an imposing granite memorial building, and 
nearly 25,000 people assembled there to hear 
the Presidential tribute and to witness the for- 
mal acceptance of the memorial with a $100,000 
endowment fund." 

Boys and girls are sometimes inclined to 
think that their studies are hard and trouble- 
some. Let them remember Abraham Lincoln, 
a poor boy, with practically no schooling, por- 
ing over his books after a hard day's work by 
the light of a pine-knot fire, who by keeping 
steadily at it became one of the most remark- 
able speakers that the world has seen, and the 
author of some of the finest writings in the 
English language. Where can we find nobler 
sentiments more beautifully expressed than 
these in his second Inaugural Address, deliv- 
ered only a few weeks before his death : 

"With malice toward none, with charity for 
all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us 



32 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

to see the right, let us strive on to finish the 
work we are in ; to bind up the nation's wounds ; 
to care for him who shall have borne the battle, 
and for his widow and for his orphan; to do 
all which may achieve and cherish a just and 
lasting peace among ourselves, and with all 
nations." 

Lincoln's address given at the dedication of 
the battlefield of Gettysburg is also one of 
those never-to-be-forgotten utterances which 
will live for all time. On the walls of many 
schools and libraries it may be found to-day, 
engraved in bronze, and our boys and girls 
each year are taught these sentences in the 
classroom. An interesting story is told of the 
time of this great speech, November 19, 1863. 
Lincoln had been more than usually busy with 
his ofl&cial cares because of the war, and had 
accepted the invitation to speak with much mis- 
giving. Unable to prepare a long speech, it is 
said that he scribbled the notes for his address 



LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 33 

on a bit of scrap paper. When he arrived on 
the battlefield, and saw the sea of upturned, 
expectant faces, his heart sank within him. He 
was preceded by Edward Everett, one of the 
most scholarly men and finished orators of 
the time. For an hour or more, Mr. Ever- 
ett poured forth his polished sentences and 
rounded periods. Finally he ceased speaking, 
and the crowd rested for a few moments from 
their long strain of close attention. 

Then Lincoln arose — a tall, ungainly man, 
whose shoulders were bent, and whose arms 
seemed too long to make a graceful gesture. 
Slowly and haltingly he began to speak, but, as 
always when he addressed an audience, he 
seemed to become transformed. His stiffness 
gave way to ease, and his words fell simply 
and clearly, but with the passion of a great 
earnestness from his lips. He spoke for per- 
haps five minutes, and when he had ended, Mr. 
Everett was the first to congratulate him. 



34 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

**Mr. President," he exclaimed, "you have said 
it all/' 

It was indeed a perfect tribute which the 
President had made in these few sentences : 

"Four score and seven years ago our 
fathers brought forth on this continent a new 
nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to 
the proposition that all men are created equalX 

"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, 
testing whether that nation, or any nation so 
conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. 
We are met on a great battlefield of that war. 
We have come to dedicate a portion of that 
field as a final resting place for those who here 
gave their lives that that nation might live. It 
is altogether fitting and proper that we should 
do this. 

"But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate 
— we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow — 
this ground. The brave men, living and dead, 
who struggled here, have consecrated it, far 



LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 35 

above our poor power to add or detract. The 
world will little note, nor long remember, what 
we say here, but it can never forget what they 
did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be 
dedicated here to the unfinished work which 
they who fought here have thus far so nobly 
advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedi- 
cated to the great task remaining before us — 
that from these honored dead we take in- 
creased devotion to that cause for which they 
gave the last full measure of devotion — that 
we here highly resolve that these dead shall not 
have died in vain — that this nation, under God, 
shall have a new birth of freedom — and that 
government of the people, by the people, for the 
people, shall not perish from the earth." 

Because of the great ideas for which Abra- 
ham Lincoln stood, his birthday is one of the 
most important of our hoHdays. It was not 
generally listed as a holiday until twenty years 
or more after his death ; and today is officially 



36 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

recognized by twenty-three states, while oth- 
ers also observe the day in an unofficial man- 
ner. Its celebration in our schools and homes 
can be made most impressive, with recitations 
from Lincoln's own utterances. And the day 
is an inspiration not only on account of its pa- 
triotic aspect, but also because of the example 
furnished by Lincoln to succeeding generations 
of boys and girls who would win success 
through their own efforts. 

''Rising as Lincoln did from social obscur- 
ity," says Deems, "through a youth of manual 
toil and poverty, steadily upward to the high- 
est level of honor in the world, and all this as 
the fruit of earnest purpose, hard work, hu- 
mane feeling and integrity of character, he is 
an example and an inspiration to youth un- 
paralleled in history. At the same time he is 
the best specimen of the possibilities attain- 
able by genius in our land and under our free 
institutions." 



ST. VALENTINE'S DAY 
(February 14) 



37 



GOOD ST. VALENTINE 



Oh, good St. Valentine, 

We lift our voice in praise; 

May long, long life be thine, 

Oh, good St. Valentine, 

This is thy day of days. 

Day when each true love sends 

A message from the heart ; 

Day when good friends greet friends, 

And Cupid shoots his dart; 

Oh, good St. Valentine, 

This is thy day of days ! 



ST. VALENTINE'S DAY 

St. Valentine's Day is not what is termed a 
legal holiday, and, if you look through the list 
of holy days of the Episcopal Church, you will 
not find St. Valentine's among them; and yet 
no book on holidays would be complete without 
some account of a day which has given excite- 
ment and pleasure to thousands, and will doubt- 
less continue to do so, so long as boys are boys 
and girls are girls. 

The most curious fact about the day is that 
its patron, St. Valentine, had actually nothing 
to 4o with the customs connected with the four- 
teenth of February. Some of these customs, 
indeed, were observed in ancient Rome long 
before the introduction of Christianity, when 
there were neither saints nor saints' days. In 

39 



40 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

those far-off days wolves were especially abun- 
dant and dangerous, and a destroyer of wolves 
was held in honor; and so it came about that 
the old Romans held a celebration in the month 
of February called the Lupercalia, in honor of 
Lupercus, ''the wolf destroyer." At this festi- 
val it was customary, among other things, for 
the young people to draw lots for partners for 
the year. Hundreds of years later the same 
custom arose in England and France, and then 
it was called St. Valentine's Day. 

St. Valentine, it seems, was a priest in Rome 
whose life came to a sad end, about the year 
270, during the persecution of the early Chris- 
tians. He was beaten with clubs and be- 
headed. Later the church canonized him — or 
made him a saint — and as it was very anxious 
to do all it could to weed out the old super- 
stitious practices of pagan Rome, a new feast 
was introduced in place of the Lupercalia, to 
v/hich the name of St. Valentine was given, 



ST. VALENTINE'S DAY 41 

because his day on the church calendar occurred 
about the same time in February. And that is 
all that has been discovered about the earliest 
history of St. Valentine's Day. 

In olden times, in England, much time and 
care were spent in the writing of valentines. 
Charles, Duke of Orleans, who was taken pris- 
oner at the battle of Agincourt, which was 
fought in the year 1415, composed some beau- 
tiful ones in prison, which have been preserved. 
Several books published in London nearly a 
hundred years ago, with the title of "The Com- 
plete Valentine Writer," include many differ- 
ent styles of valentines, to suit persons of every 
trade and profession, from a carpenter to a 
lawyer, so the custom of sending such mes- 
sages must have been widely popular. Three 
hundred years ago, Shakespeare speaks of it. 
In the play of Hamlet, Ophelia says : 

"Good morrow! 'tis St. Valentine's Day 
All in the morning betime, 



42 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

And I a maid at your window 
To be your valentine." 

Bailey, whose Dictionary was the forerunner 
of all our present big dictionaries, says: "In 
England about this time of the year the birds 
choose their mates ; and probably thence came 
the custom of the young men and maidens 
choosing valentines, or special loving friends 
on this day." Besides the choosing of a per- 
son for a valentine for the year, it became the 
custom in England, from which country we get 
our observance of the day, for the two persons 
who were valentines to exchange presents; 
afterwards it became the practice for the gen- 
tleman only to give a present. Usually some 
verses, or at least a motto, went with the pres- 
ent; in the course of time the verses were sent 
without any present, and this custom has re- 
mained to the present time. 

In different parts of England many curious 
observances were connected with St. Valen- 



ST. VALENTINE'S DAY 43 

tine's Day. An old traveler writes: "On the 
fourteenth of February it is customary in many 
parts of Hertfordshire for the children to meet 
together in some part of the town where they 
live, and to go to the house of the principal man 
of the place, who from his window throws 
them wreaths and true lovers' knots, with which 
they adorn themselves. They then choose the 
youngest boy in the company and deck him out 
more gaily than the rest. Placing him at their 
head, they march forward in great state, at the 
same time singing : 

"Good morrow to you, St. Valentine, 
Curl your locks as I do mine, 
Two before and three behind; 
Good morrow to you, Valentine." 

At one time the sending of presents on St. 
Valentine's Day was a most important matter. 
Mr. Samuel Pepys, who lived in the reign of 
Charles II, and whose remarkable Diary gives 
us a fine picture of the social life of that time, 



44 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

mentions the fact that the Duke of Richmond, 
who had been drawn by a Miss Stuart as her 
valentine, gave that lady for a present a jewel 
worth $4,000, and the gentleman whom she 
drew for her valentine, the next year, gave her 
a ring worth about $1,500. A young lady who 
drew Mr. Pepys for her valentine received as 
a present from him some green silk stockings, 
garters, and shoe laces, which pleased the 
young lady very much; and to Mrs. Pepys, who 
once drew her husband for her valentine, he 
gave a ring "made of a Turkey stone set with 
diamonds.'' 

Many readers of the works of Sir Walter 
Scott do not know that he gave the name "St. 
Valentine's Day" to one of his books. This 
book is now called "The Fair Maid of Perth," 
but that is the second part of the title, which 
reads, "St. Valentine's Day, or the Fair Maid 
of Perth." In the story Sir Walter describes a 
peculiar custom which was common in Scotland 



ST. VALENTINE'S DAY 45 

on St. Valentine's Day. Old Simon Glover is 
anxious that his daughter Catharine should 
marry Harry Gow, the armorer or smith, but 
she does not want to do so, although liking the 
brave man well enough as a friend. It was the 
custom that the first person of the opposite 
sex that one saw on St. Valentine's morning 
would be one's valentine for the year. Cath- 
arine's action is thus described: "I will not 
wait till my father compels me to receive him 
[Harry] as my valentine for the year; I will 
seek him out and choose him myself. I have 
thought other girls bold when they did some- 
thing like this, but I shall thus best please my 
father, and discharge the rites due to good St. 
Valentine, by showing my gratitude to this 
brave man." Catharine paused at the door of 
the hall where her suitor, who had been staying 
up late with her father, was sleeping in his 
chair, and became half afraid of carrying out 
her plan, which not only allowed, but required, 



46 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

the valentines of the year to seal their bargain 
with a kiss. It was considered as exceedingly 
fortunate if the one party should find the other 
asleep and awaken him or her by this interest- 
ing part of St. Valentine's Day custom. Cath- 
arine, tripping along with a light step, glided 
to the chair of the sleeper, and blushing at her 
own boldness, dropped on his lips "a kiss as 
light as if a roseleaf had fallen on them." 
Needless to say, her suitor awakes and is de- 
lighted with his good fortune. 

An English writer, in expressing regret that 
the custom of sending valentines has fallen oif 
so greatly within the past few years, mentions 
the fact that in 1832 as many as 1,634,000 
passed through the London general post office; 
and in offering an explanation for the decrease 
makes this curious suggestion: "What really 
killed the valentine was the telephone. When 
the telephone came into the house the valen- 
tine could not live in the same atmosphere." 



ST. VALENTINE'S DAY 47 

He is sorry for the change because he thinks 
"that the more feasts there are for the Nurs- 
ery Calendar the better, and there is no doubt 
that St. Valentine's Day was a great time for 
the young people." But one thing we may be 
thankful for. The old superstitions about the 
day have passed away. What young girl would 
think of doing to-day what was done in the 
year 1756 by a girl who writes: "Last Friday 
was Valentine's Day, and the night before I 
got five bayleaves, and pinned four of them to 
the four corners of my pillow and the fifth to 
the middle; and then, if I dreamed of my 
sweetheart, Betty said we should be married 
before the year was out. But to make it more 
sure, I boiled an egg hard, and took out the 
yolk, and filled it with salt; and when I went 
to bed, ate it shell and all, without drinking 
or speaking after it." 

Another queer custom was for the young 
people to get up before sunrise and go out to 



48 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

try to snare an owl and two sparrows. Just 
why they chose these particular birds we do 
not know, but if they succeeded it was ac- 
counted a good omen. When they returned 
home, their neighbors would make them pres- 
ents. They were lucky people all the rest of 
the year. In some places, the suitor would 
write his valentine, and, fastening it to an 
apple or orange, would steal quietly up to the 
home of his sweetheart and toss it through the 
open door or window. Even though she might 
not welcome the note, she would be hard- 
hearted indeed not to accept the fruit. 

The practice of sending ugly valentines is a 
much later one, for which there is no excuse. 
The day is intended only as an occasion of 
pleasant messages. The unpleasant ones were 
far better burned. If we cannot say a kind 
word, why say anything at all? The over- 
colored cartoon valentines had their greatest 
popularity in America, thirty or forty years 



ST. VALENTINE'S DAY 49 

ago. Now we seem to be outgrowing them. 
Meanwhile the pretty valentines — all hearts 
and sweets and paper laces — are growing finer 
every year. Quite an industry has grown up 
around them, and our boys and girls would be 
astonished at the number of different pro- 
cesses a fine valentine undergoes. On it is a 
picture of Cupid, perhaps, done in gay colors. 
After the artist's drawing has been made, the 
engraver or lithographer prepares plates or 
stones, from which the pressman prints his pic- 
tures. The lace-work around the edge is a 
pattern cut in steel, from which another work- 
man transfers the pattern to paper, and still 
another workman rubs this paper with sand- 
paper until only the lace pattern is left. Then 
there may be verses, or hearts, or other fancy 
things. After all these have been made sepa- 
rately, girls with nimble fingers assemble the 
material, and paste up the Cupids, arrows, 
bleeding hearts, tender verses, and lace edges 



50 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

into the flimsy but treasured thing we call a 
valentine. But where one of these fine ones is 
sent a hundred valentine postcards are dis- 
tributed; for nowadays the postcard message 
is a most popular sort of remembrance. Mil- 
lions of such cards are printed, many of them 
being very quaint and original. While some 
are mailed, a greater number are left slyly 
from door to door. 

In a collection of valentine verses printed a 
few years ago, in New York, the following 
amusing ones occur, supposed to be written by 
a confectioner: 

Young Cupid's choicest sugar-plum, 

Affections purest drop, 
Your sweetness has no rival 

In the candies of my shop. 

ril send you some vanilla 

And ril make you, love, a neat heart, 
Out of my rarest sugar. 

If you will be my sweetheart. 



WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 
(February 22) 



51 



OLD SONG WRITTEN DURING 
WASHINGTON'S LIFE 

Americans, rejoice; 

While songs employ the voice, 

Let trumpets sound. 
The thirteen stripes display 
In flags and streamers gay, 
'Tis Washington's Birthday, 

Let joy abound. 

Long may he live to see 
This land of liberty 

Flourish in peace; 
Long may he live to prove 
A grateful people's love, 
And late to heaven remove. 

Where joys ne'er cease. 

Fill the glass to the brink, 
Washington's health we'll drink, 

'Tis his birthday. 
Glorious deeds he has done. 
By him our cause is won, 
Long live great Washington ! 

Huzza ! Huzza ! 



52 



WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

It seems rather odd, when you come to think 
of it, that the only two birthdays of our Presi- 
dents, which we celebrate, come in February, 
our shortest month. It is indeed an important 
month in our national history, for it gave us 
both Washington and Lincoln, The poet. Will 
Carleton, has given us some whimsical verses 
in this connection that are worth repeating : 

February — Februar)/- — 

How your moods and actions vary 

Or to seek or shun ! 
Now a smile of sunlight lifting. 
Now in chilly snowflakes drifting; 
Now with icy shuttles creeping, 

Silver webs are spun. 
Now, with leaden torrents leaping, 

Oceanward you run. 
Now with bells you blithely sing, 

S3 



54 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

'Neath the stars or sun; 
Now a blade of burdock bring 

To the suffering one ; 
February — you are very 

Dear, when all is done: 
Many blessings rest above you, 
. You one day (and so we love you) 

Gave us Washington. 

, The story of George Washington's life h^s 
be;en, pf tei;, told, but it is worth repeating, It 
was an actiye, bu3y life froinhis earliest days, 
beginning as it did away back in .Colonial times 
when , the .country was wilfi, , and . unsettled. 
Washington was born in W^strnpreland 
County, Virginia, in 1732. /There, is^np re- 
liable record of his early education, but it has 
been supposed that the first school he, ever at- 
tended was a little old field school kept by one 
of his f ather^s tenants, named Hobby^ who was 
both sexton and schoolmaster; Even at this 
early age George was fond of playing at war. 
He used to divide his playmates into parties 
and armies. One of them was called the 



WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 55 

French and the other American. A big boy 
named William Bustle commanded the French, 
and George commanded the Americans. Every- 
day, with cornstalks for muskets and gourds 
for drums, the two armies would turn out and 
march and fight. 

George was not remarkable as a scholar, but 
he had a liking for mathematics. He was of 
a more serious turn of mind than most boys of 
his age. His last two years at school were de- 
voted to engineering, geometry, trigonometry, 
and surveying, and at sixteen years of age he 
was appointed a public surveyor. His new em- 
ployment brought him a handsome salary, and 
well it might ; for it took him into the perils 
and hardships of the wilderness often meeting 
savage chieftains, or fording swollen streams, 
climbing rugged mountains, breasting furious 
storms, wading through snowdrifts, sleeping in 
the open air, and living upon the coarse food 
of hunters and of Indians. But everywhere he 



S6 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

gained the admiration of the backwoodsmen 
and the Indians by his manly bearing and his 
wonderful endurance. 

In the year 1751 the frontiers of the colony 
of Virginia were constantly being attacked by 
the French and the Indians, so it was decided 
to divide the colony into military districts un- 
der a major; and when he was but nineteen, 
George Washington received one of these ap- 
pointments. Two years later he was sent to 
the French, who were becoming threatening, 
to find out their intentions and to warn them 
against invading Virginian territory. This im- 
portant mission made it necessary for him to 
journey six hundred miles through the wilder- 
ness; but he carried out his instructions suc- 
cessfully, and traveled the whole distance with- 
out an escort. In July, 1752, his half-brother 
Lawrence died and left him the estate of Mount 
Vernon on the Potomac. This had been named 
in honor of the British Admiral, Vernon, un- 




WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 



WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 57 

der whom Lawrence had served as a captain 
of Virginia infantry. In 1755 George Wash- 
ington served under the British officer, General 
Braddock, showing great bravery under fire at 
the battle of Monongahela, against the French 
and Indians, which would probably not have 
been lost if the general had taken Washing- 
ton's advice. 

In 1759 Washington married a widow named 
Martha Custis with two children, John and 
Martha Parke Custis. He was a great favorite 
with the two youngsters, and used to order 
toys, dolls, and gingerbreads for them, from 
London. Mrs. Custis had a large estate and 
so had Washington, and the management of 
them took up all of his time. In 1774, when 
the disputes between England and the Ameri- 
can colonies v. ere at their height, he became a 
member of the First Continental Congress, and 
the following year was chosen by that body 
Commander-in-chief of the Continental army. 



58 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

For this position his training and his survey- 
ing experiences had thoroughly fitted him. He 
took command of the troops at Cambridge, 
Massachusetts, on July 3, 1775; but it was a 
poor army that he found under him. It was in 
want of arms, ammunition, and general equip- 
ment. Washington, however, kept it together 
with patience and skill during the trying years 
of the Revolution. The war lasted six years 
and ended with the surrender of- the British 
commander, Cornwallis, at Yorktown, Vir- 
ginia, in 1 781. During all this time Washing- 
ton had had to contend with the greatest diffi- 
culties. The troops were poorly paid or 
equipped ; often there were disputes among the 
officers, and Congress did not know the army's 
needs; but the General always kept the confi- 
dence of his men until victory was assured. 
How careful he was for the comfort of the 
lowliest among them may be gathered from 
the following story. Washington had been 



WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 59 

talking on an important matter in another offi- 
cer's camp, and had not noticed that it was 
growing late. He agreed to spend the night 
where he was if ^ there were enough blankets 
and straw. "Oh, yes," said Primus^ the negro 
servant, "plenty of both." Two beds were 
made up and the two officers were soon asleep. 
In the middle of the night Washington awoke 
and saw the negro sitting up. "Primus," said 
he, "what do you mean by giving up your 
blankets and straw to me, that I may sleep 
comfortably while you are obliged to sit 
through the night?" "Don't trouble yourself 
about me. General, but go to sleep again. No 
matter about me." "But it is matter," said 
Washington. "The blanket is wide enough for 
two. Come and lie down with me." And, 
though he did not want to do it, the negro laid 
himself down by Washington on the same 
straw and under the same blanket, and the two 
slept till morning. 



6o THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

In 1783, Washington bade farewell to his 
army, and for the next six years lived the sim- 
ple life of a country gentleman on his estate at 
Mount Vernon, attending to the affairs of his 
homestead and property. 

In 1789, he was again called from private 
life, to become first President of the United 
States. Congress was sitting at New York, 
for which city he started, in April. He disliked 
fuss and ceremony, but the people could not be 
restrained from show^'ng their love and admi- 
ration. His progress through New Jersey was 
amid constant cheering, ringing of bells, and 
the booming of cannon. At Elizabethtown he 
embarked on a splendid barge, followed by 
other barges and boats, making a long water 
procession up the Bay of New York, the ships 
in the harbor being decorated with colors, and 
firing salutes as it passed. The inauguration 
took place on April 30, 1780. at the old City 
Hall, in AVall Street; Broad Street being 



WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 6i 

crowded with thousands of people as far as the 
eye could reach. In 1793, he was re-elected for 
a second term of four years, after which he 
bade farewell to the people and retired into 
private life. On the 12th of December, 1799, 
he caught a severe cold in making the round of 
his plantations and died two days later, in his 
sixty-eighth year. In number of years he had 
not lived a long life, but how much was 
crowded into it ! 

Most of the portraits of Washington show 
him as a serious-looking gentleman in a wig, 
and the earliest biographies of him would lead 
us to believe that he was always on his dignity. 
But our first President was, in fact, a very 
genial man, with a hearty laugh, who enjoyed 
going to the theater, was fond of fox-hunting 
and was a thorough sportsman, and, as he him- 
self admitted, had a hot temper. Towards 
young people and children he was always very 
gracious and kind. He was an early riser ; and 



62 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

in his own copybook, begun when he was four- 
teen years old, is the following entry : "Rise 
early, that by habit it may become familiar, 
agreeable, healthy, and profitable. It may be ; 
irksome for a while to do this, but that will 
soon wear off." 

Like Lincoln, Washington was very athletic. 
Both of our two great presidents were tall men : 
Washington was six feet two inches; Lincoln 
was six feet, four. When he first visited the 
Natural Bridge, in Virginia, Washington threw 
a stone to the top, a distance of about two hun- 
dred feet, and, climbing the rocks, carved his 
name far above all others. Washington was 
of more graceful appearance than Lincoln. He 
was always very particular about his dress. 
One who saw him at a levee says: "He was 
dressed in black velvet, his hair powdered (as 
was the custom in those days) and gathered 
behind in a large silk bag; yellow gloves on his 
hands ; holding a cocked hat, with a cockade on 



WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 63 

it, and the edges adorned with a black feather 
about an inch deep. He wore knee and shoe 
buckles, and a long sword. The scabbard was 
of white polished leather." He was not a 
dandy, however, by any means. He once wrote 
to his nephew, "Do not imagine that fine clothes 
make fine men any more than fine feathers 
make fine birds. A plain, genteel dress is more 
admired and obtains more credit than lace and 
embroidery in the eyes of the sensible." 

In all the positions which he was called upon 
to fill, in his remarkable life, whether as host 
at his home, as surveyor, as general, or as 
President, Washington showed the same desire 
to give the best that was in him for his people, 
his country, and for humanity at large. He 
endeared himself to the lowly and he gained 
the admiration of the great. He was never 
influenced by mean motives, and those who 
were under him loved him. Thus it was that 
among Americans he came to be regarded as 



64 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

"First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts 
of his countrymen" ; and when his death became 
known on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, 
the armies of Napoleon in France, and the fleet 
of Great Britain, his former enemy, did homage 
to his memory. 

Washington's Birthday was celebrated even 
during his lifetime, and he had the satisfaction 
of receiving the congratulations of his fellow- 
citizens many times upon the return of this 
day, frequently being a guest at banquets given 
in honor of the occasion. In fact, after the 
Revolution, Washington's Birthday practically 
took the place of the birthday of the various 
crowned heads of Great Britain, which had al- 
ways been celebrated with enthusiasm during 
colonial times. When independence was estab- 
lished, all these royal birthdays were cast aside, 
and the Birthday of Washington naturally be- 
came one of the most widely celebrated of 
American holidays. 



WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 65 

The first mention we find of the day is in an 
old newspaper called The Virginia Gazette, 
which reads : "Tuesday last being the birthday 
of his Excellency, General Washington, our il- 
lustrious Commander-in-Chief, the same was 
commemorated here with the utmost demon- 
strations of joy." This was in the year 1782. 
The following year a celebration was held at 
Talbot Court House, in Maryland ; and another 
one in New York. Songs were written for 
the occasion, toasts were drunk, and it was 
agreed that the celebration of Washington's 
Birthday should be held every year thereafter. 
The old song quoted at the first of this story 
was written for the New York banquet. 

The next year gave the citizens of New York 
a fine opportunity. In the previous October 
the British troops had evacuated New York 
City, which was gradually recovering from the 
distress of the long war. The demonstrations 
were not very elaborate, but they were in- 



66 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

tensely patriotic. In a newspaper of the year 
1784, we find an interesting account of this 
first public celebration in New York: "Wed- 
nesday last being the birthday of his Excel- 
lency, General Washington, the same was cele- 
brated here by all the true friends of American 
Independence and constitutional liberty with 
that hilarity and manly decorum ever attend- 
ant on the sons of freedom. In the evening 
an entertainment was given on board the East 
India ship in this harbor to a very brilliant and 
respectable company, and a discharge of thir- 
teen cannon was fired on this joyful occasion." 
From this time on, the celebrations of the 
day multiplied, so that before the year 1800 
they had become general. Balls and banquets 
were the chief functions of the day, and there 
was hardly a town so small that it could not 
manage to have at least one of these. The 
early newspapers for a month and often 
longer, after the 22d of February, were filled 



WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 67 

with brief accounts of these celebrations from 
different locaUties. Many of them are very 
interesting, showing as they do the patriotism 
of the people, as well as their customs and 
habits in their social entertainments. To-day 
Washington's Birthday is a legal hoHday in 
every State in the Union, with one exception. 
But beyond the setting-aside of the day, in a 
formal fashion, we run the risk of losing sight 
of its especial meaning. We have our school 
exercises, but very little else, in the way of 
program or celebration to call the day to mind. 
Even our dinners and parties do not give us a 
correct idea of Washington the man. We have 
for favors usually a hatchet and some cherries, 
recalling the story told of him as a boy, cutting 
down his father's cherry-tree. But this story 
is said, by our writers of history, not to be true 
at all ! Surely we have many other things by 
which to remember the Father of his Country. 
Let us not forget what we owe to Washington, 



68 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

or make him merely a name — an excuse for a 
holiday. Let us remember him as a real, flesh- 
and-blood man — one of the greatest known to 
history. 

He gave us a nation to make it immortal ; 

He laid down for Freedom the sword that he 

drew, 
And his faith leads us on through the uplifting 

portal 
Of the glories of peace and our destinies new. 



ST. PATRICK'S DAY 
(March 17) 



69 



SHAMROCK DAY 

In the far-off Isle of Erin, 
'Mid the living fields of green. 
Grows the clover of St. Patrick, 
Telling where his steps have been. 
As each year the shamrock blossoms. 
It recalls the tale of yore, 
Tells the story of a mission 
To a hostile, heathen shore ; 
Winter flees with breath so hoary. 
Spring returns with vernal sheen, 
Nature doffs her robe of ermine. 
For the wearing of the green. 



70 



ST. PATRICK'S DAY 

Every country has its saint, under whose 
care it is supposed to be — not really, you know, 
but this is what is called "tradition." The 
English call St. George their patron saint; the 
Welsh have St. David for theirs; the Scotch 
have St. Andrew ; the French have St. Denys ; 
and the saint which is dearest to all Irish people 
is St. Patrick. The remarkable thing about 
most of these saints is that they lived so long 
ago that no one knows when or where they 
were born. But, after all, that is a very small 
matter; for some of the most famous men of 
history are known only by what they did or 
wrote, and no one has been able to discover 
who their parents were, or the countries from 

71 



y2 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

which they came. In the case of the great poet 
Homer, for example, although we have the 
wonderful works which bear his name, there 
are some persons who say that no such man 
ever lived at all. 

So in regard to St. Patrick, whose day is 
celebrated by the Irish on the seventeenth of 
March, it is not known whether he was born in 
Scotland, or in a country known as Armoric 
Gaul, but these two are considered to be the 
most probable places. The year of his birth 
has never been discovered, but he is thought to 
have been the son of a man named Calpurnius, 
who was a judge or magistrate of a Roman 
colony a little more than fifteen hundred years 
ago. 

When sixteen years old — this was about the 
year 403 — he was taken captive with several 
others and conveyed in a boat to Ireland, and 
there sold as a slave to one Milcho. While 
looking after this man's sheep he learned the 



ST. PATRICK'S DAY 73 

customs and the language of the Irish. He 
managed to escape to his native country, but 
had become so fond of the Irish people that he 
wanted to make them Christians, like his own 
people. For many years he studied and planned 
to fit himself for this great work. Then he 
had to get the consent of the Pope, and to ob- 
tain this he went to Rome. Pope Celestine gave 
him the necessary permission to return to Ire- 
land, and Patrick is believed to have reached 
that country for the second time about the year 
432. He was not the first missionary who had 
tried to teach Christianity to the Irish, but 
those who had gone before him had not been 
able to do much because the Druids, a heathen 
priesthood, were very powerful in the country. 
Patrick was at this time about forty-five years 
old, and after a lot of hard work and discour- 
agement, he won a wonderful success. A story 
told about him is said to account for the Irish 
wearing sprigs of shamrock in their coats on 



74 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

the day when they celebrate his memory. The 
story runs as follows : 

When St. Patrick landed near Wicklow, in 
Ireland, the people did not like his trying to 
get them to change their religion. To them the 
new teaching was all nonsense. When he be- 
gan to talk to them about the Father, the Son, 
and the Holy Ghost, three persons in one God, 
the people would not believe him, and they be- 
came so angry at him that they picked up 
stones with the intention of killing him. St. 
Patrick then plucked from the green on which 
he was standing a piece of Dutch clover, and, 
showing it to the Irish round about him, said : 
"Is it any more strange that three persons 
should be united in one God than it is for these 
three leaves of the clover to grow upon one 
stalk?" This convinced his hearers; they gave 
him their confidence, and for many years St. 
Patrick lived and worked among them, doing 
all the good he could, building churches, until 



ST. PATRICK'S DAY 75 

at last he succeeded in inducing most of the 
Irish to become Christians. He died a very old 
man on March 17, 465, and for his good works 
has become their patron saint. 

It would be hard, indeed, to find a patron 
saint in any land better beloved than St. Pat- 
rick. The Irish are devoted to his memory, 
and countless thousands of their little lads are 
christened Patrick, which speedily becomes 
shortened to Pat. Even the girls do not escape, 
as the many Patricias can testify. And there 
is scarcely a bit of countryside that doesn't 
have its local legend. For instance, in Lough 
Derg, a lonely Irish lake shut in by barren 
moors and scrubby hills, there is a small rocky 
island with a natural grotto of stones. This 
the villagers allude to as St. Patrick's Purga- 
tory. Their legends tell of marvellous deeds 
done there by their patron saint in the long 
ago; and they point out a group of smooth 
slabs of stone like huge couches, which they 



76 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

call the Seven Penitential Beds. As pilgrims 
would visit the little isle for healing in body 
or mind, St. Patrick would cause them to re- 
cline upon these stone couches, when immedi- 
ately they would be made whole. 

Many other interesting legends cluster around 
the name of St. Patrick, but the one which is 
most persistent is that he drove the snakes out 
of Ireland. More than one picture has been 
painted depicting the snakes fleeing in terror 
before his uplifted crucifix, or falling over a 
cliff into the sea. This story is as much a part 
of popular belief as is any story of the Bible 
itself; and to clinch the argument, your devout 
Irishman will tell you that to-day you cannot 
find a living snake in the whole of the Emerald 
Isle. In some parts of Ireland on St. Patrick's 
Day this ditty is sung: 

St. Patrick was a gentleman, and he came from 

decent people; 
In Dublin town he built a church, and on it put 

a steeple ; 



ST. PATRICK'S DAY jy 

His father was a Wollagham, his mother an 

O'Grady, 
His aunt she was a Kinaghan, and his wife a 
widow Brady. 
Toorallo, toorallo, what a glorious man our 

saint was ! 
Toorallo, toorallo, O whack fal de lal, etc. 

Och! Antrim's hills are mighty high, and so's 
the hill of Howth, too ; 

But we all do know a mountain that's higher 
than them both, too ; 

'Twas on the top of that high mount St. Pat- 
rick preached a sermon, 

He drove the frogs into the bogs, and banished 
all the vermin. 



There is probably no national holiday cele- 
brated with more enthusiasm than St. Patrick's 
Day. It is just one hundred and eighty years 
ago that the first celebration in America of 
which we have any account was held. On 
March 17, 1737, there was founded in Boston, 
Massachusetts, the Charitable Irish Society 
"for the relief of the poor and indigent Irish- 
men reduced by sickness, 'shipwrack,' old age 



78 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

or other infirmities," and since then many simi- 
lar societies with equally good aims have been 
founded. You may see on St. Patrick's Day 
the members of these societies wearing their 
green sashes (green because that is the color 
of the shamrock, also of their Emerald Isle, 
and their national flag), as well as the mem- 
bers of societies which have to do with politics, 
all marching in the many processions on that 
day. In the evening there are dinners and 
much dancing and jollity, as the Irish believe 
that the celebration of this day aids to promote 
good-fellowship and to keep up old acquaint- 
ance, besides helping forward the cause of 
charity, which in this case means the caring for 
the orphans and the comforting of the aged. 
Among other early references to the day in 
American history there is an interesting ac- 
count of a celebration of St. Patrick's Day in 
Philadelphia, in 1778, when the British soldiers 
were in this country. Two years earlier the 



ST. PATRICK^S DAY 79 

British evacuated Boston on St. Patrick's Day 
and the Americans marched in and took pos- 
session. On that occasion General Washing- 
ton in the camp at Cambridge gave "Boston" 
as the password for the day, with "St. Patrick" 
for the countersign or reply. 

The Irish people would be willing to give up 
a good many things before they would give up 
their celebration of St. Patrick's Day. Some- 
times, however, the processions cannot take 
place. In New York on St. Patrick's Day, 191 7, 
for the first time in many years the great pro- 
cession, which had been planned so long ahead 
and arranged with so much trouble, had to be 
called off at the last minute, because that 
grouchy gentleman, the Clerk of the Weather, 
chose to send a pelting rainstorm to the city. 
But, like our presidential inauguration day, St. 
Patrick's Day comes in the most uncertain 
month of the whole year for outdoor celebra- 
tions. 



GOOD FRIDAY 

AND 

EASTER 
(Various dates, usually in April) 



8i 



AN EASTER CAROL 

Spring bursts to-day, 
For Christ is risen and all the earth's at play. 

Flash forth, thou Sun. 
The rain is over and gone, its work is done. 

Winter is past, 
Sweet Spring is come at last, is come at last. 

Bud, Fig and Vine, 
Bud, Olive, fat with fruit and oil and wine. 

Break forth this morn 
In roses, thou but yesterday a thorn. 

UpHft thy head, 
O pure white Lily through the Winter dead. 

Beside your dams 
Leap and rejoice, you merry-making Lambs. 

All hearts and flocks 
Rejoice, all beasts of thickets and of rocks. 

Sing, Creatures, sing. 
Angels and Men and Birds and everything! 

Christina G. Rossetti. 



82 



GOOD FRIDAY AND EASTER 

These two holy days of the Church are so 
closely connected that we can well consider 
them together. The first of the days celebrates, 
as you know, the death of Christ, and the sec- 
ond His resurrection. 

Good Friday is the sixth day of what is 
culled Holy Week, and is the end of that week 
as well as of the lenten season. In the life of 
Christ this was the week of the momentous 
closing events. He rode into Jerusalem on the 
preceding Sunday (Palm Sunday) while the 
people strewed palms and branches of trees in 
his path. Then followed in rapid succession 
his betrayal by Judas, his trial, and his cruci- 
fixion, the last taking place on what is now 
known as Good Friday. 

83 



84 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

In the early days of the Church, Good Friday 
was a day of strict fasting and penance. It was 
a solemn preparation for Easter, and was called 
the Festival of the Crucifixion, and the Day of 
Salvation. The church service was of the sim- 
plest. The usual chants and praises w^ere omit- 
ted, and no music was allowed but of the most 
plaintive description. No bell was rung for 
worship. No one bowed the knee in prayer, be- 
cause by this ceremony the Jews reviled Jesus. 
Neither did people kiss one another, because 
with a kiss Judas betrayed his Lord. The sac- 
ramental food and wine were not blessed on 
Good Friday, but a portion was saved from the 
day before ; the altars were stripped of their or- 
naments, and black veils were used to cover 
them ; and the gospel of John was read, because 
he was a witness of our Lord's passion. 

Greek and Latin churches still observe Good 
Friday with great solemnity. The altar lights 
are put out, the altar furniture is covered, the 



GOOD FRIDAY AND EASTER 85 

usual communion is omitted, and the bells in the 
church towers remain silent. 

The Emperor Constantine forbade the hold- 
ing of courts, markets, and the usual course of 
business on Good Friday; and this is probably 
the first mention of the day as a "legal" holi- 
day. It was not generally observed in Eng- 
land, outside the special church services. In 
America, today, some ten States have made it 
a legal holiday, but no public exercises have 
been prepared for the day, and it is usually re- 
garded in the light of a "day off." In the 
Eastern States the most popular mark of the 
arrival of Good Friday is the baking of hot 
cross buns. In every bake-shop and restaurant 
window they appear as if by magic, only to dis- 
appear again by the week's end. Why they are 
not eaten at other times is a mystery that only 
our bakers and pastry-cooks can solve. 

In marked contrast to the solemnity of the 
church observance of Good Friday is the sue- 



86 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

ceeding Easter Sunday. It is one of the most 
joyous days of the whole year, rivalHng Christ- 
mas in this respect. It marks the triumph of 
death over life, not alone for Christ but for all 
the world. 



"Christ, Christ is risen !" The unseen singers 

sing 

"Christ, Christ is risen !" The echoing hosts 

reply, 

The whist wind knows a passing seraph's wing, 

And holds its breath while shining ones go 

by; 

"Christ, Christ is risen!" loud let the anthem 

ring 

"He lives — He loves — He saves — we need 
not die!" 



Easter corresponds with the Jewish festival 
of the Passover, which meant the passing-over 
of the angel of death. You can read about it 
in the Old Testament. The Hebrew name for 
Passover was "Pesach ;" and the name is still 
kept in France, where they call Easter "Pa- 



GOOD FRIDAY AND EASTER 87 

ques" ; in Italy, "Pasqua f and in Spain, "Pas- 
cua/' In the old Hebrew days the Passover, 
or Pascal lamb, as it was called, was sacrificed 
to save the people from death. And so the old 
Passover merely has the new idea added to it, 
of Christ, the Lamb of God, who through His 
sacrifice made it possible for all others to es- 
cape from sin and death. 

In the Greek Church, which is the national 
faith of Russia, magnificent ceremonies are 
held, especially in St. Isaac's Cathedral at 
Petrograd, which is the finest church building 
in the country. It is an immense and imposing 
structure, with four large porches ornamented 
and supported by colossal granite pillars; the 
whole surmounted by a great dome, covered 
with gold, and topped by a solid gold cross, 
seventeen feet in height. The interior is incon- 
ceivably rich in pillars, mosaics, pictures, prec- 
ious stones, and gold. 

On Good Friday an image of Christ here 



88 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

reposes in state, and throughout Saturday 
thousands kiss His hands and feet, and drop 
coins in the church treasury. On Easter eve 
the climax is reached. The people are ex- 
hausted from long fasting. At midnight the 
priests march around the church in elaborate 
procession, searching for the dead Christ. 
Then follows a two hours' service, after which 
the golden doors of the Holy of Holies are 
thrown open, and the chief priest advances, 
holding the cross in his hands, and announces, 
"Christ is risen!" "He is risen!" — the cry is 
taken up by all the people, and resounds amid 
kisses and embraces, while the bells send out a 
merry peal, the cannon are fired, and all the 
city becomes aflame with lights. Then follows 
the blessing of the food brought for the pur- 
pose : oddly shaped loaves of bread, mounds of 
white cheese, red-colored eggs, sugar, honey, 
and fruit. At three o'clock in the morning the 
hungry crowd scatters for feasting; and for 



GOOD FRIDAY AND EASTER 89 

the ensuing three or four days, the festivals 
continue. 

At St. Peter's in Rome, the seat of the Ro- 
man Catholic Church, the services are no less 
impressive. The Pope is borne from the Vati- 
can, his official palace, on a chair carried on 
men's shoulders, and wearing his triple crown 
and all his vestments. A silk canopy is raised 
over his head, while attendants wave huge fans 
of ostrich and peacock feathers, on each side. 
He is conveyed between two lines of Swiss 
Guards to his throne, behind the altar, and high 
mass is celebrated, while the lofty edifice blazes 
with lights. After the service, the Pope is 
borne back through the crowds which he 
blesses; and then the people scramble for 
printed papers containing a copy of the pray- 
ers he has uttered, which are thrown from an 
upper balcony. 

While nothing is said in the New Testament 
about the Easter festival, its origin has been 



90 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

traced back to the days of the apostles. At first 
it was the festival of both the crucifixion and 
the resurrection; but after the fourth century 
it was limited to its present meaning. 

For a long time the early Church could not 
decide upon the exact date for the Easter cele- 
bration. After much dispute the question was 
settled at the Council of Nicea, held 325 A.D., 
in what has seemed to many of us a very curi- 
ous way. Instead of having a fixed date for 
every year, it depends upon the phases of the 
moon. The decree fixed it on the Sunday fol- 
lowing the fourteenth day of the Pascal moon, 
which falls upon the first Sunday after the 
vernal equinox. Now have you the date clearly 
in your head? If not, do not be discouraged, 
as not one person out of a hundred knows just 
when Easter comes, until he is told. Perhaps 
you can figure it out more easily if we say that 
it is the first Sunday after the full moon which 
happens next after March 21. But as this rule 



GOOD FRIDAY AND EASTER 91 

is subject to one or two exceptions — and to 
save your bother — here is a list of Easter Sun- 
day dates for the next few years : 

1 91 8 March 31 1924 April 20 

1919 April 20 1925 April 12 

1920 April 4 1926 April 4 

1 92 1 March 27 1927 April 17 

1922 April 16 1928 April 8 

1923 April I 1929 March 31 

The origin of the name, Easter, has been 
in some doubt. Bede, an early English writer, 
said that the Saxons so called it because of a 
goddess of Spring, Eostre; but other writers 
dispute this and trace it back to an old heathen 
festival of Eostur, in honor of the Spring sun 
which, after the vernal equinox, was found 
again in the East. 

In his "Curiosities of Popular Customs," 
Walsh gives a picturesque account of some old 
customs and superstitions connected with 
Easter. "It was," he says, "the invariable pol- 
icy of the early church to give a Christian sig- 



92 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

nificance to such of the extant pagan cere- 
monies as could not be rooted out. In the case 
of Easter the conversion was peculiarly easy. 
Joy at the rising of the natural sun, and at the 
awakening of nature from the death of winter, 
became joy at the rising of the sun of right- 
eousness, at the resurrection of Christ from 
the grave. Some of the pagan observances 
which took place about the first of May were 
also shifted to correspond with the celebration 
of Easter. Many new features were added. 
It was a time of exuberant joy. Gregory of 
Nyssa draws a vivid picture of the joyous 
crowds who, by their dress (a feature still 
preserved) and their devout attendance at 
church, sought to do honor to the festival. All 
labor ceased, all trades were suspended. It was 
a favorite time for baptism, the law courts were 
closed, alms were given to the poor, slaves were 
freed. Easter, indeed, became known as the 
"Sunday of Joy.'' In the reaction from the 



GOOD FRIDAY AND EASTER 93 

severities of Lent, people gave themselves up to 
enjoyment, popular sports, dances, and other 
festivities. In some places the clergy would 
recite from the pulpit humorous stories and 
legends for the purpose of exciting the **Easter 
smile." People exchanged the Easter kiss and 
the greeting, "Christ is risen,'' to which the 
reply was made, "He is risen indeed," — a cus- 
tom kept up to this day in some parts of the 
world. 

As with Christmas, there are many popular 
beliefs and customs connected with Easter. 
The giving of presents, chiefly eggs, is one of 
the oldest. In the north of England it is a very 
old custom for children to exchange presents 
of eggs. The learned Count de Gebelin in- 
forms us that this custom of giving eggs may 
be traced back to the times of the Egyptians, 
Persians, Gauls, Greeks, Romans and others, 
among all of whom an tgg was an emblem of 
the universe, the work of supreme Divinity. 



94 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

There was also an ancient custom of dyeing 
or staining eggs at this season. Another 
writer says : "Eggs were held by the Egyptians 
as a sacred emblem of the renovation of man- 
kind after the Deluge. The Jews adopted it 
to suit the circumstances of their history, as 
a type of their departure from the land of 
Egypt, and it was used in the feast of the Pass- 
over as part of the furniture of the table, with 
the Pascal Lamb. The Christians have cer- 
tainly used it on this day, as retaining the ele- 
ments of future life, for an emblem of the 
Resurrection." 

Le Brun, in his "Voyages," tells us that the 
Persians, on the 20th of March, 1 704, kept the 
festival of the Solar New Year, which, he says, 
lasted several days, when they mutually pre- 
sented each other, among other things, with 
colored eggs. Among the Persians, the New 
Year is looked upon as the renewal of all 
things, and is noted for the triumph of the Sun 



GOOD FRIDAY AND EASTER 95 

of Nature, as Easter is with the Christians for 
that over death. The Feast of the New Year 
was celebrated at the vernal equinox, that is, at 
a time when the^ Christians, kept only the festi- 
val of Easter. Hence, the feast of eggs has 
been attached to Easter. Father Camelli, in his 
"History of Customs," says that, during Easter 
and the following days, hard eggs, painted of 
different colors, but principally red, are the 
ordinary food of the season. In Italy, Spain, 
and Provence, where almost every ancient su- 
perstition is retained, there are in the public 
places certain sports with eggs. This custom 
he derives from the Jews or the Pagans, for he 
observes it common to both. 

Among the Christians of Mesopotamia, on 
Easter Day and for forty days afterwards, the 
children buy for themselves as many eggs as 
they can, and stain them with red, green and 
yellow. Colored eggs are also sold in the mar- 
ket. The sport consists in striking the eggs 



96 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

one against another, and the egg that first 
breaks is won by the owner of the egg that 
struck it. Immediately another egg is pitted 
against the winning egg, and so they go on, till 
the last remaining egg wins all the others. In 
England, on Easter Eve, boys beg eggs to play 
with. These are hardened by boiling, and 
tinged with the juice of herbs, broom-flowers, 
etc. The boys then go out and play with them 
in the fields, rolling them up and down, like 
bowls, upon the ground, or throwing them up, 
like balls, into the air. Eggs stained with va- 
rious colors in boiling, and sometimes covered 
with leaf-gold, are also presented to children. 
Still another writer says: "The Italians do 
not only abstain from flesh during Lent, but 
also from eggs, cheese, butter, and all white 
meats. As soon as the eggs are blessed, every 
one carries his portion home, and causeth a 
large table to be set in the best room in the 
house, which they cover with their best linen, 



GOOD FRIDAY AND EASTER 97 

all bestrewed with flowers, and place round 
about it a dozen dishes of meat, and the great 
charger of eggs in the midst. 'Tis a very pleas- 
ant sight to see these tables set forth in the 
houses of great persons, when they expose on 
side tables (round about the chamber) all the 
plate they have in the house, and whatever else 
they have that is rich and curious, in honor 
of their Easter eggs, which of themselves yield 
a very fair show, for the shells of them are 
painted with divers colors, and gilt. Some- 
times there are no less than twenty dozen in the 
same charger, neatly laid together in the form 
of a pyramid. The table continues, in the same 
posture, covered, all the Easter week, and all 
those who come to visit them in that time are 
invited to eat an Easter egg with them, which 
they must not refuse." 

"Easter Day,'' says a visitor to Russia, "is 
set apart as a time for visiting in this country. 
A Russian came into my room, offered me his 



98 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

hand, and gave me at the same time an tgg. 
Another followed who also embraced and 
gave me an egg, I gave him in return the egg 
which I had just before received. The men go 
to each other's houses in the morning and in- 
troduce themselves by saying, 7esus Christ is 
risen/ The answer is, 'Yes, He is risen/ The 
people then embrace, give each other eggs, and 
drink together/' This extract from Hakluyt's 
"Voyages,'* a very old book, shows how little 
the custom has varied in Russia: "They have 
an order at Easter which they always observe, 
and that is this: every yeere, against Easter, 
to die or colour red, with Brazzle (Brazil- 
wood) a great number of eggs, of which every 
man and woman giveth one unto the priest of 
the parish upon Easter Day, in the morning. 
And, moreover, the common people use to car- 
rie in their hands one of these red eggs, not 
only upon Easter Day, but also three or foure 
dayes after, and gentlemen and gentlewomen 



GOOD FRIDAY AND EASTER 99 

have egges gilded, which they carrie in like 
manner. They use it as they say, for a great 
love, and in token of the Resurrection, whereof 
they rejoice. For when two friends meete dur- 
ing the Easter Holydayes they come and take 
one another by the hand ; and one of them saith, 
The Lord, our Christ, is risen ;' the other an- 
swereth, Tt is so of a trueth;' and then they 
kiss and exchange their egges; both men and 
women, continuing foure days together." 

From the above quotations and many more 
which might be made, if we had space for them, 
you may see how old are the Easter customs, 
and in how many lands the quaint idea is found 
of using an egg to symbolize the resurrection. 
Boys and girls of America have followed this 
custom. All like to get their Easter eggs, and 
many are the games that have been invented. 
In Washington, on the Monday after Easter, 
the smooth slope of the White House lawn is 



loo THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

used for egg rolling contests, in which hun- 
dreds of children take part. 

Among the legends which still are told, one 
is that the eggs are the gift of the Easter Rab- 
bit; and nowadays the little Bunnies are quite 
as popular gifts as are the eggs. These and 
the Easter lilies are the three great S)mibols 
that are seen on every side. And how beauti- 
ful are our churches on that glad day! The 
altars are banked with stately lilies gleaming 
out like stars from a mass of green. One of 
our earliest of Spring flowers, they typify the 
new life that has been quickened in the heart 
of Nature after the sleep of Winter. 

Easter Sunday with the church-goers is one 
of the great days of the* year. The musical 
service is equalled only by that of Christmas. 
It is the time of all times for us to dress in our 
very best. Every girl feels that she must have 
her new hat, or there is no joy in life. And 
after the service is over, what a dress parade 



GOOD FRIDAY AND EASTER loi 

may be seen in the streets ! In New York, the 
Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue is an annual 
event of importance. There Dame Fashion 
may be seen walking abroad in all her dignity ; 
for the people of wealth forsake their limou- 
sines in order to take their place in the prome- 
nade. 

And thus it is around the world, with high 
and low, Easter is a day of joy. It comes at 
just the right time to awaken a feeling of glad- 
ness in us all. Winter is over. The new life 
of Spring is at hand. And if Nature can thus 
conquer death, how easy it is for us to believe 
the great story back of Easter Day. 

The little flowers came through the ground, 

At Easter time, at Easter time: 
They raised their heads and looked around, 

At happy Easter time. 
And every pretty bud did say, 

"Good people, bless this holy day, 
For Christ is risen, the angels say 

At happy Easter time !" 



MAY DAY 
(May i) 



103 



OLD SONG 

As it fell upon a day 
In the merry month of May, 
Sitting in a pleasant shade 
Which a grove of myrtles made, 
Beasts did leap and birds did sing. 

Richard Barnfield (1570) 



104 



MAY DAY 

You must wake and call me early, call me early 
mother dear ; 

Tomorrow will be the happiest time of all the 
glad New- Year; 

Of all the glad New-Year, mother, the mad- 
dest, merriest day; 

For Fm to be Queen of the May, mother, Fm 
to be Queen of the May. 

Thus sang Tennyson, the English poet, 
about a happy, outdoor day for children, in 
England and America alike. In America, how- 
ever, we do not celebrate May Day to the ex- 
tent that it is celebrated across the water. In 
England the first Saturday after the first of 
May is often chosen, because that is a holiday 
in the schools, and the children can give the 
whole day to their enjoyment and games. 



io6 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

And, although we may dance around our may- 
poles, we cannot very well crown our May 
Queens with crowns of May, or hawthorn blos- 
som, because in many of our States the haw- 
thorn is not in bloom on the first of May. But 
in warmer climates, in other countries, and in 
years long, long ago, May Day celebrations 
were among the greatest of the year. May 
Day, indeed, has quite a history and a very in- 
teresting one. 

Like a good many other of our holidays and 
celebrations, that of May Day has come down 
to us from an old Roman festival. The Ro- 
mans who lived seventeen hundred years ago 
knew nothing of Christianity and had many 
gods and goddesses. Among these was Flora, 
the goddess of flowers and Spring, and every 
year, from April 28 to May 3, a festival was 
held in her honor, and games were held in the 
building, which they called the Circus. Chil- 
dren, whose arms were filled with flowers, and 



MAY DAY 107 

whose heads were wreathed with garlands, 
danced along the streets with greetings for 
other groups of May Day revellers whom they 
met. They twined their garlands around the 
marble columns of the temple of Flora, and laid 
upon the altar the fairest of their floral offer- 
ings, hoping thus to gain the favor of the god- 
dess. The flamen florialis, or priest of Flora, 
stood at the altar, wearing a tall and conical 
white cap, trimmed with wool and topped with 
olive wood, a long white mantle and an olive 
wreath of his order. He it was who received 
their gifts, and then the youths and maidens, 
joining hands before the altar, went through 
the figures of a sort of stately minuet or flower- 
dance and, as they danced, they sang a joyous 
hymn in praise of Flora, of flowers and of 
Spring. The boy or girl who should be the 
first to place a garland of flowers on Flora's 
altar was supposed to be sure of good luck for 
the rest of the year. 



io8 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

In England there was, for many years, one 
very curious feature in May Day celebrations, 
which would have made many American boys 
and girls — yes and grown-ups, too — stare with 
surprise. This was the procession of the chim- 
ney-sweeps. It used to be the custom in Lon- 
don to make little boys climb up chimneys and 
sweep down the soot. Now they no longer 
employ such chimney-sweeps; but in the old 
days it was their custom, every May Day, 
to have a great procession of the sweeps in 
London. On some occasions kind-hearted peo- 
ple helped to make the day a glad one for the 
little folks of the chimneys by asking them all 
to a good dinner of roast beef and plum pud- 
ding. 

Another of the sights in London, on May 
Day, was the line of stage coaches, which were 
used before railways were made, all gaily 
decorated, with the horses smartly groomed, 
and the harness brightly polished, and the driv- 



MAY DAY 109 

ers and guards or conductors in their new 
clothes. The milkmaids, too, used to bedeck 
themselves with flowers and go from house to 
house dancing and singing. 

In all the towns and villages in England 
and Wales great preparations were made for 
the May Day celebrations. It was the custom 
to rise a little after midnight (people went to 
bed earlier in those days than they do now) 
and go into the woods, returning with branches 
and nosegays and crowns of flowers. Some of 
these would be hung on the doors of friends' 
houses. Pranks were often played, and some- 
times, in spite, a bunch of nettles would take 
the place of flowers. At the large school at 
Eton, if the weather was fine, the boys were 
allowed to rise at four o'clock and go into the 
woods, if they could do so "without getting 
their feet wet." Do you suppose any boy liv- 
ing could do it ? But probably every boy tried. 
How general this custom was you may see 



no THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

when you read that King Henry VIH and 
Queen Katharine at the beginning of his reign 
"rose on May Day very early and with the 
lords and ladies of the court went to fetch May 
or green boughs." 

Shakespeare in some of his plays says, "It is 
impossible to make the people sleep on May 
morning," and that "they rose early to ob- 
serve the rite of May." But one of the most 
beautiful observances of the day takes place 
at Oxford, where on May morning the citizens 
and the people from the neighboring villages 
all come to listen to the sweet singing of the 
choristers (all in their white gowns) on the top 
of the tower of Magdalen College. All is calm 
and quiet until, the singing finished, the first 
peal of the church bells breaks out, and then 
the mirth and fun begin. 

As with all celebrations in olden times, some 
strange ideas were held by the country folk in 
connection with May Day. One of them was 



MAY DAY III 

that if you wet your face with dew, on May 
Day morning, your complexion would be 
greatly improved. So on the first of May you 
might have seen hundreds of girls and women 
out in the fields while the dew was yet on the 
ground, seeking to make themselves more at- 
tractive by this means. 

But the great event of the English day was 
dancing around the maypole. This pole was 
not one of the small size used in our May Day 
celebrations, but a big tree. In some cases it 
took forty yoke of oxen to haul it from the 
woods, whence it was brought all decorated 
with flowers and streamers. This tall tree was 
set firmly in the ground (for it often remained 
in its position for a year) and round about it 
little booths and arbors were often built. 
When the decoration of it was properly fin- 
ished, the people used to spend the rest of the 
day in dancing around it. Washington Irving, 
the author who wrote "Rip Van Winkle," was 



112 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

so delighted when he saw a maypole on the 
banks of the Dee, near Chester in England, 
that he wrote : "I shall never forget the delight 
I felt on first seeing a maypole. My fancy 
adorned it with wreaths of flowers and peopled 
the green bank with all the dancing and revelry 
of May Day. The mere sight of this maypole 
gave a glow to my feelings and spread a charm 
over the country for the rest of the day." 

Very diiff erent, however, was the feeling to- 
ward May Day which the old Puritans showed. 
The Puritans took a very serious view of life, 
and the following has been printed as a speci- 
men of a Puritan's May Day verse : 

Good morning, lads and lasses, it is the first of 

May; 
I hope you'll view the garland, for it looks very 

gay; 

Now take the Bible in your hand and read a 

chapter through. 
And when the day of judgment comes, the Lord 

will think of you. 

As for dancing around the maypole, the 



MAY DAY 113 

Puritans thought this was as bad as the wor- 
ship of idols. Nathaniel Hawthorne tells us 
of a case in point. He says that in the year 
1628, at a place near a settlement of Puritans 
in Massachusetts, some of the people were en- 
joying themselves dancing about the maypole, 
which so enraged the Puritans that Governor 
Endicott rushed to the pole and hacked it with 
his sword till it fell, at which the Puritan fol- 
lowers said "Amen !" 

It is one of the prettiest of sights today to 
see thousands of children gathered in our parks 
at their May Day celebrations and games, twin- 
ing many-colored ribbons around the maypoles, 
crowning their Queen, and enjoying themselves 
in the true spirit of the day. The winter with 
its dreary days and its frost and snow are all 
forgotten, for spring is here, and we know that 
every day more flowers will come into bloom, 
and that it will not be long before all the glory 
of summer is over the land. 



ARBOR DAY 
(Various dates ; usually early in May) 



IIS 



HE WHO PLANTS TREES 

He who plants a tree, he plants love; 
Tents of coolness spreading out above 
Wayfarers, he may not live to see. 

Gifts that grow are best; 

Hands that bless are blest ; 

Plant-life does the rest ! 
Heaven and earth help him who plants a tree, 
And his work his own reward shall be. 

Lucy Larcom. 



ii6 



ARBOR DAY 

^Arhor is the Latin word for "tree/' so we 
might call this "Tree Day;" but a still better 
name for it would be "Tree-planting Day," be- 
cause that gives a perfectly correct idea of its 
object. It may well be regarded as one of the 
most valuable of all our holidays — as it is one 
of our newest — for the good that can come 
from it. 

One of the great sources of the wealth of the 
United States is our timber. This comes 
chiefly from the great forests in North and 
South Carolina, Minnesota, Michigan, Wis- 
consin, Washington, and Oregon. Here we 
find wooded tracts covering millions of acres, 
and there are more than 25,000 saw-mills and 
planing-mills at work cutting up and prepar- 
ing the shingles, beams, and planks that are 

117 



ii8 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

used in building alone. Think for a moment of 
the numbers of uses to which timber is put. 
Besides that used in building, a large quantity 
is required for furniture, tools, wagons, toys, 
packing cases, barrels, poles for telegraph and 
telephone wires, and many other things. A 
large quantity is needed for fuel. It has been 
estimated that the grate and kindling wood 
used in the United States in a single year is 
worth 330 millions of dollars. Just think of 
it! 

Besides all this the wood of certain trees is 
ground into pulp for the manufacture of pa- 
per; that of other trees is used in making gun- 
powder; the pine trees give us pitch, tar, and 
resin ; and the bark of several trees is used for 
tanning leather. Also, from a large number 
of trees dyes are obtained and valuable medi- 
cines are prepared, some of which were used 
by the Indians long before the white man ever 
came to his country. 



ARBOR DAY 119 

You will easily see that the cutting of timber 
every year for all these purposes makes a very 
large reduction in the number of our trees. 
Besides, there is a large loss of timber through 
forest fires, which sometimes burn over ten mil- 
lion acres in a single year. But for many 
years the owners of forests and the dealers m 
lumber never gave a thought to the fact that 
when a tree was destroyed, the proper and the 
wise thing to do was to plant another in its 
place at once, so that as the years went by and 
the new trees grew up there would still be tim- 
ber for the people who came after them. In- 
stead, they cut down one tract after another, 
leaving great bare spaces, which you may see 
today as you travel through the forest dis- 
tricts. 

You may say: "All this is very interesting, 
but what has it to do with Arbor Day?" Wait 
a moment and you will see. 

If you should happen to pick up a geography 



I20 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

of fifty years ago, you would probably see 
printed across the space now occupied by the 
State of Nebraska the words, "The Great 
American Desert/' It was in this very State 
that Arbor Day had its beginning. In 1872, 
Mr. J. Sterling Morton, a far-seeing states- 
man, pointed out to his fellow citizens that it 
would be a fine thing to plant trees over the 
great barren prairies. He suggested that a 
certain day should be set apart each year when 
all could join in the tree-planting. It took 
some time for his ideas — and the trees them- 
selves — to take root. Many persons scofifed at 
the scheme and said that trees could not grow 
in Nebraska ; but they did, and gradually "The 
Great American Desert" has been transformed 
into a fertile and prosperous farming and or- 
chard country. The State Board of Agricul- 
ture ofiFered prizes for the counties and per- 
sons planting the largest number of trees, and 
it is said that more than a million trees were 



ARBOR DAY 121 

planted the first year, and that since that time 
more than 800 milHon trees have been planted 
in the State! In 1895, in honor of Mr. Mor- 
ton and his plan, the State legislature resolved 
that Nebraska should be known hereafter as 
the "Tree Planters' State." 

Another pioneer in the Arbor Day movement 
was Mr. B. G. Northrup, for many years chair- 
man of the American Forestry Association. 
Mr. Northrup started a scheme, forty years 
ago, under which he offered a prize of a dollar 
to every boy or girl who §hould plant or help in 
planting five trees; and he pushed forward so 
successfully the idea of having a set day in 
schools for planting, that now there are but 
few States in which Arbor Day is not observed. 
The exact date varies somewhat according to 
climate, but it is usually in th^ spring. The 
State of New York, by a law passed in 1888, 
decided that the Friday following the first day 
of May should be known all through the 



122 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

State as Arbor Day. This law which is similar 
to statutes in other States makes it the duty of 
the heads of every public school to assemble 
the scholars and hold such exercises as shall 
be likely to encourage the planting, protection, 
and preservation of trees and shrubs, and to 
give instructions in the best methods to carry 
out this work. How quickly and generally the 
idea of Arbor Day was taken up in New York 
may be seen when we read that within ten 
years from the time that the observance of the 
day was begun, the school children of that 
State planted more than 200,000 trees. 

It is usual to plant trees in honor of some 
person or in memory of some event. At the 
Indian School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, at one 
Arbor Day celebration, the scholars not only 
planted a hundred trees on the campus, but also 
one each in honor of their visitors, each guest 
choosing his favorite tree. 

In an Arbor Day letter to the schoolchildren 



ARBOR DAY 123 

of the United States, President Roosevelt said : 
"It is well that you should celebrate your 
Arbor Day thoughtfully, for within your life- 
time the Nation's need of trees will become 
serious. We of an older generation can get 
along with what we have, though with grow- 
ing hardship; but in your full manhood and 
womanhood you will want what nature once so 
bountifully supplied, and man so thoughtlessly 
destroyed; and because of that want you will 
reproach us, not for what we have used, but 
for what we have wasted. 

"A people without children would face a 
hopeless future; a country without trees is al- 
most as hopeless; forests which are so used 
that they cannot renew themselves will soon 
vanish, and with them all their benefits. A 
true forest is not merely a storehouse full of 
wood, but, as it were, a factory of wood, and 
at the same time a reservoir of water. When 
you help to preserve our forests or plant new 



124 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

ones you are acting the part of good citizens. 
The value of forestry deserves, therefore, to be 
taught in the schools, which aim to make good 
citizens of you. If your Arbor Day exercises 
help you to realize what benefits each one of 
you received from the forests, and how by your 
assistance these benefits may continue, they 
will serve a good end/' 

In our country Arbor Day, as you see, is not 
a holiday of long standing; but the idea itself is 
very old. The ancient Aztecs of Central Amer- 
ica, centuries before Columbus sailed to these 
shores, are said to have planted a tree every 
time a child was born, and to have given the 
child's name to the tree. In parts of Mexico 
the Indians still keep up this old custom. 

In Germany where they care for their for- 
ests as carefully as any other part of their 
standing crops, a somewhat similar custom ex- 
ists. Each family in some rural districts plants 



ARBOR DAY 125 

its own trees with special ceremonies, forty 
days after Easter. 

An old Swiss record of the fifth century 
gives an account of an early Tree Day in that 
country. Mr. R. H. Schauffler thus tells the 
story : "It seems that the people of a little Swiss 
town called Brugg assembled in council and re- 
solved to plant a forest of oak trees on the 
common. The first rainy day thereafter the 
citizens began their work. They dug holes in 
the ground with canes and sticks, and dropped 
an acorn in each hole, tramping the dirt over 
it. More than twelve sacks were sown in this 
way, and after the work was done each citizen 
received a wheaten roll as a reward. 

"For some reason the work was all in vain, 
for the seed never came up. Perhaps the 
acorns were laid too deep, or it might have been 
that the tramping of so many feet had packed 
the earth too firmly. Whatever the cause, the 
acorns refused to sprout, and the townspeople 



126 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

sowed the same ground with rye and oats, and 
after the harvest they tried the acorn planting 
again — this time in another way — ^by plowing 
the soil and sowing the acorns in the furrows. 
But again the great oaks refused to grow ; grass 
came up instead, and the people were disap- 
pointed. But an oak tree grove they were de- 
termined to have, so after this second failure a 
few wise men put their heads together and de- 
cided to gain the desired result by transplant- 
ing. A day was appointed in October, and the 
whole community, men, women, and children, 
marched to the woods, dug up oak saplings, 
and transplanted them on the common. At the 
close of the exercises each girl and boy was pre- 
sented with a roll, and in the evening the grown 
people had a merry feast in the town hall. This 
time the trees grew. The people of Brugg were 
pleased and satisfied, and instituted the day of 
tree-planting as a yearly holiday. Every year 
as the day came around the children formed in 



ARBOR DAY 127 

line and marched to the oak grove, bringing 
back twigs or switches, thus proving that the 
oaks were thriving, and every year at the close 
of the parade the rolls were distributed to be 
eaten in remembrance of the day. The festival 
still exists and is known as *The Switch Pa- 
rade/ " 

The most unique celebration of Arbor Day, 
probably, is that which occurs at Eynsford, 
England, where some remarkable commemora- 
tive tree-planting has taken placee. The 
observance began in 1897, during Queen Vic- 
toria's diamond jubilee, when shade trees were 
planted in acrostic form, and an orchard of 
apple trees was set out. During the South 
African war the shade trees spelled out the 
names of three battles, Kimberly, Ladysmith, 
and Maf eking. In 1902, four years after 
Queen Victoria's death, trees were planted 
along the main road as a memorial in acrostic 
form, repeating Lord Tennyson's line : 



128 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 
"She wrought her people lasting good." 

Since then a quarter of a mile of trees have 
been planted whose initial letters spell out two 
lines from Robert Browning's "Rabbi Ben 
Ezra:" 



'The best is yet to be : 

The last of life for which the first was made." 



In this way the people are drawn to learn 
the names of many different varieties of trees, 
so as to identify them at sight and read the 
couplets from the initial letters, for themselves. 

So far has the Arbor Day movement spread, 
that the day is now celebrated in the Hawaiian 
Islands and even in Japan, where the Emper- 
or's birthday has been chosen for the date. The 
time seems not far distant when it will be ob- 
served in every land. Think of the tremendous 
good it would do. In China, for example, 
where, centuries ago, the destruction of the 



ARBOR DAY 129 

forests left the land barren and worthless, mil- 
lions of acres could thus be reclaimed. 

Arbor Day has another good lesson for us. 
It is that we should not only plant new trees, 
but study them. The study of trees and plants 
is one of the most interesting and useful sub- 
jects that can be taken up. There are so many 
things to be learned about them, such as the 
different kinds of roots that trees have; their 
leaves and bark ; why trees grow upward, why 
they grow straight, why some trees grow to 
a certain height and others grow much higher, 
why the branches grow sideways, what certain 
trees are used for, and why under certain con- 
ditions, trees turn to coal. 

Perhaps one of the most useful schools to 
enable boys to learn about trees is that 
started at "Biltmore," the North Carolina es- 
tate of Mr. George Vanderbilt, some years ago. 
Here boys from different parts of the country 
now come to learn all about forestry, or the 



I30 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

care of trees. They are taught to tell the kinds 
of trees from their twigs and flowers, how to 
cut certain trees for turpentine, how to saw and 
pile cordwood, how to peel the bark from trees 
for tanning, and how to do many other things. 
But one of the most important things they learn 
— and here is where the Arbor Day idea comes 
in — is "reforesting,'* that is, the planting of 
young trees to take the place of those that have 
been cut down. On many old farm tracts, 
which their former owners gave up because 
they considered them worthless, the young 
woodsmen from Biltmore have planted ash, 
cherry, and other hard woods ; and where once 
were bare tracts of land you may now see hun- 
dreds of acres of young trees growing. 

There is a story of an old Scotch farmer 
who, on his deathbed, called his eldest son to 
him. "The greatest wealth that I can leave 
you," he said, "is the trees. But don't squander 
this wealth — add to it, instead. Plant trees— 



ARBOR DAY 131 

plenty of trees. Remember, they are growing 
while you are sleeping/* 

The poet, Bryant, has voiced the same senti- 
ment beautifully in his poem, "The Planting of 
the Apple Tree/' We will quote only a part 
of it here, but it would be a fine thing for you 
to look up the whole poem and learn it by 
heart, for the next Arbor Day. 

Come, let us plant the apple-tree, 
Cleave the tough greensward with the spade; 
Wide let its hollow bed be made ; 
There gently lay the roots, and there 
Sift the dark mold with kindly care. 

And press it o'er them tenderly; 
As 'round the sleeping infant's feet 
We softly fold the cradle-sheet, 

So plant we the apple-tree. 

What plant we in this apple-tree? 
Buds, which the breath of summer days 
Shall lengthen into leafy sprays ; 
Boughs, where the thrush, with crimson breast, 
Shall hunt and sing, and hide her nest; 

We plant upon the sunny lea 
A shadow for the noontide hour, 
A shelter from the summer shower. 

When we plant the apple-tree. 



132 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

Each year shall give this apple-tree, 
A broader flush of roseate bloom, 
A deeper maze of verdurous gloom, 
And loosen, when the frost-clouds lower, 
The crisp brown leaves in thicker shower. 

The years shall come and pass, but we 
Shall hear no longer, where we lie. 
The summer's songs, the autumn's sigh, 

In the boughs of the apple-tree. 



BIRD DAY 
(Various dates; usually early in May) 



133 



THE BIRDS OF KILLINGWORTH 

Think, every morning when the sun peeps 
through 

The dim, leaf-latticed windows of the grove. 
How jubilant the happy birds renew 

Their old, melodious madrigals of love! 
And when you think of this, remember, too, 

'Tis always morning somewhere, and above 
The awakening continents, from shore to 

shore, 
Somewhere the birds are singing evermore. 

H. W. Longfellow. 



134 



BIRD DAY 

Have you ever thought how dreary the world 
would be without any birds ? The spring, with 
all its beauties of the early buds and blos- 
soms and the fresh green of the meadows, 
would be a poor kind of spring without the 
song of bluebird and robin to greet us and re- 
mind us that the dreary days of winter are 
over, and that before very long the glorious 
golden days of summer will be here. We would 
miss that "rascal of the woods," as he has been 
called, the blue jay, not to speak of the cow- 
bird and the catbird, and the homelike caw of 
crow as he watches the upturned furrows made 
by the plow or the journeys of the harrow up 
and down the fields. 

And a summer, too, without the birds would 

135 



136 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

be very strange. No swallows circling about 
in the air; no song of thrush or blackbird; no 
cheery note of warbler or bobolink ; no sight of 
oriole, and waxwing, and tanager, in their bril- 
liant colored coats; and no stately eagle, the 
symbol of our nation. Still further, if all the 
birds were taken from us we should miss the 
majestic swans upon our lakes and rivers, the 
familiar quack of the ducks upon the ponds, 
and the homely but invaluable tenants of our 
henneries, with their lordly roosters ; and — not 
an egg for breakfast ! 

But beyond the pleasure that we derive from 
the presence of birds, there is another and a 
much more important aspect of the matter. 
Jules Michelet, the talented French naturalist 
and historian, says in one of his books that if 
all the birds of the world were destroyed, 
within nine years it would be impossible for 
man to inhabit it. Certain birds, like the owls, 
prey upon small gnawing animals, such as the 



BIRD DAY 137 

rat and the mouse, which work such havoc in 
our orchards and gardens and fields; others 
feed upon insects. Persons who have studied 
the subject carefully have estimated that farm- 
ers and gardeners in the United States and 
Canada sustain a loss of 400 million dollars a 
year from the ravages of insects alone ! This 
does not include damage to ornamental shrub- 
bery, shade and forest trees, nor to the grass 
growing on our prairies. Insects are, in fact, 
natural enemies of vegetation. Fortunately, 
however, birds are the natural enemies of in- 
sects. 

As Dr. Chapman has so well said, in his 
book, "Bird Life:" "In the air swallows and 
swifts are coursing rapidly to and fro ever in 
pursuit of the insects which constitute their 
sole food. When they retire the nighthawks 
and whip-poor-wills take up the chase, catching 
moths and other nocturnal insects which would 
escape day-flying birds. Flycatchers lie in 



138 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

wait, darting from ambush at passing prey, 
and with a suggestive click of the bill returning 
to their post. The warblers, light, active crea- 
tures, flutter about the foliage, and with almost 
the skill of a humming-bird pick insects from 
the leaf or blossom. The vireos patiently ex- 
plore the under sides of leaves and odd nooks 
and corners to see that no skulker escapes. 
The woodpeckers, nuthatches, and creepers at- 
tend to the trunks and limbs, examining care- 
fully each inch of bark for its eggs and larvae, 
and excavating for the ants and borers that 
they bear within. On the ground the hunt is 
continued by the thrushes and sparrows, and 
other birds. Even the insects which pass their 
earlier stages or their entire lives in the water 
are preyed upon by the water birds." 

Since the birds are doing all this wonderful 
and valuable work, it is only right and proper 
that a day should be set apart in their honor. 
In most of the States Bird Day is celebrated 



BIRD DAY 139 

in the schools. There is no fixed date for it; 
and in several States Arbor Day and Bird Day 
are combined. A few of the States issue "Ar- 
bor and Bird Day Annuals," which are often 
really handsome volumes with full-page il- 
lustrations of birds in colors, and descriptions 
of our two-legged and feathered friends. The 
Governor of the State usually issues a procla- 
mation announcing the date or dates on which 
Arbor and Bird Day shall be celebrated. These 
documents are generally very dull and formal, 
but at times they show the spirit of the true 
bird lover. One of the best was that issued by 
the Governor of Indiana in 1907, which is well 
worth reading. It begins : 

"The mysteries of the changing seasons are 
about us. Budding foliage, bursting flowers, 
and fragrant blossoms are everywhere. The 
air is vibrant with the babble of many waters 
and with the cries and songs of nestling birds. 
April — changing, fickle, and winsome April — 



I40 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

sits again 'at the Loom of Spring,' weaving of 
air and sunlight and of dew and shower a 
thousand 'wonder fabrics.' Unseen but vital 
and mysterious forces are revivifying the earth 
and calling unto us to join in Nature's annual 
triumph over death. 

"To this call we can make no more appro- 
priate answer than to set apart a day for the 
celebration of the return of this glad new sea- 
son, and for the planting of trees and shrubs. 
Every tree planted makes the earth more habi- 
table and a happier place in which to dwell. It 
adds also to the material welfare of the State." 

The proclamation ends : 

"Let this be done in the interest of forestry 
cultivation and with a view to adding to the 
beauty and the wealth and resources of the 
State, and to our own culture and happiness 
and the culture and happiness of our children. 
To him who understands the life of tree and 
bird and the lessons taught by them 'the whis- 



BIRD DAY 141 

pering grove a holy triumph is/ and every bird 
that has the gift of song God's messenger." 

In many states Bird Day is arranged in con- 
nection with the National Association of Au- 
dubon Societies, a most useful society for pre- 
serving and protecting the v^ild birds of the 
country. A sketch of John James Audubon, 
America's most famous naturalist, is printed 
in many annuals, together with poems and ar- 
ticles on various birds; and the schools' exer- 
cises consist of readings and recitations from 
these, and an address by some prominent bird 
lover. When it is remembered that several of 
our birds, such as the great auk, the passenger 
pigeon (which used to be seen in millions), the 
wild turkey, and the South Carolina paroquet, 
have now become extinct, or are in danger of 
becoming so, the usefulness of Bird Day in 
spreading a love of birds and the desire to help 
them is self-evident. 

In Salt Lake City there is a unique monu- 



142 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

ment to the birds. For three years in succes- 
sion, from 1848 to 1850, black crickets by 
millions threatened to ruin the crops upon 
which the very lives of the settlers depended. 
The situation was as serious as it could be, 
when, just in the nick of time, large flocks of 
gulls came to the rescue, and devoured the de- 
structive insects until the fields were completely 
freed from them. So the citizens erected a 
monument, on which is a bronze figure of two 
gulls, ''in grateful remembrance" of the birds' 
services. On April 3, 1915, Salt Lake City 
had a great celebration of Bird Day, that date 
being chosen as the anniversary of the birth- 
day of Mr. John Burroughs, our revered bird 
lover. At Liberty Park a bird "sanctuary" 
or refuge for birds was dedicated, a huge, per- 
manent sign being unveiled, the first line of 
which reads: "Do you prefer destruction by 
insects to the song of birds?" 

In another way Bird Day is also having a 



BIRD DAY 143 

most useful result, and that is in the photo- 
graphing of live birds in their native haunts. 
Sportsmen who formerly used only to kill the 
birds now have taken up bird photography, and 
say that they have far more pleasure with the 
camera than they ever had with the gun. 
Photographing birds is not only a fine recrea- 
tion, but it gives one an intimate knowledge 
of bird life, of nesting sites and times, and of 
bird habits generally which cannot be obtained 
in any other way. 

Let us make friends with our bird neighbors. 
Let us study them and protect them. It is a 
friendship that will pay us back an hundred- 
fold. 



MOTHERS' DAY 
(Second Sunday in May) 



■45 



TO MY MOTHER 

IVe gone about for years, I find, 

With eyes half Hind, 

Squandering golden hours 

In search of flow'rs 

That do not grow, it seems, 

Except in dreams; 

But in my wanderings 

From place to place 

I've found more fair no face 

No eyes more true than thine, 
Oh, mother mine ! 

Edward S. Field. 



146 



MOTHERS* DAY 

In a certain New England town there is an 
old man who for many years has lived at an 
hotel, and, save for one occasion, has never 
been known to speak to anyone, except when 
ordering his meals. In the winter when he sits 
in the hotel lobby, reading the daily paper, he 
turns his face to the radiator. He goes for 
his daily walk, out and home, with never a 
good morning greeting for anybody, and re- 
ceiving none. On one occasion, however, cu- 
riosity seems to have gotten the better of the 
old gentleman. It was the second Sunday in 
May, and a beautiful morning. As he went 
for his walk, he met a number of children — 
little tots and older ones — each one of whom 
carried white carnations. Then he noticed that 

147 



148 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

the men he met were all wearing carnations in 
their buttonholes. Stopping a little girl, he 
asked why everybody had these flowers. 
"Why/' said she, "don't you know it's Moth- 
ers' Day, and you've got to write home to your 
mother? If you'd like a carnation, I'll give 
you one." And, placing a flower in his hand, 
she trotted on her way. Persons who saw 
this incident, and who knew the old man by 
sight, often wondered whether the little girl's 
answer and gift brought gladness or sorrow to 
him — gladness in remembering that he had not 
forgotten his mother, or sorrow in recollecting 
the long, long years he had had no news from 
home. 

It was a happy thought to have the carna- 
tion, a white carnation, as the badge of Moth- 
ers' Day. It is one of the most fragrant flow- 
ers that blow ; and a mother's love is one of the 
sweetest things in the world. And the color, 
white, suggests that our love for our mothers 



MOTHERS' DAY 149 

should be as pure. But wearing a carnation 
is only one of the features in the celebration of 
Mothers' Day. The letter home, the songs, 
recitations, or other school exercises, while 
simple, help to make us remember the every- 
day things we are often in danger of forget- 
ting. 

While the formal setting apart of Mothers' 
Day in this country is very recent, the idea 
may be traced back to ancient times. Mother 
love is older, indeed, than the Christian faith. 
Rhea, the "great Mother of the Gods," was 
worshipped in Asia Minor; but with her, as 
with Juno, it was her majesty and might rather 
than mother love, that was celebrated. Rhea, 
or Cybele, as she was also called, was pictured 
as traveling in a chariot drawn by lions. The 
lion and the oak and pine trees were her em- 
blems. 

From Asia these rites were taken to Greece 
and Rome, where they became a part of the 



ISO THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

Feast of Hilaria, held on the Ides of March. 
With the coming of the Christian era, this and 
other of the old heathen festivals were sup- 
planted by ceremonies of the Church. The 
Virgin Mary became the "Mother" of the Ro- 
man Catholic faith ; and the "Mother Church" 
idea also arose. 

Out of this, in time, grew another beautiful 
idea, which was to set apart in England a 
special day as Mothering Day. This was 
in the middle of Lent and all young men 
and women who were serving away from home 
as apprentices were asked to go home to visit 
their parents. In Chambers' "Book of Days," 
we have the following account of the custom : 

"The harshness and general painfulness of 
life in old times must have been much relieved 
by certain simple and affectionate customs 
which modern people have learned to dispense 
with. Amongst these was a practice of going 
to see parents, and especially the female one, 



MOTHERS' DAY 151 

on the mid Sunday of Lent, taking for them 
some little present, such as a cake or a trinket. 
A youth engaged in this amiable act of duty 
was said to go a-mothering, and thence the day 
itself came to be called Mothering Sunday. 
One can readily imagine how, after a stripling 
or maiden had gone to service or launched 
in independent housekeeping, the old bonds oi 
filial love v^ould be brightened by this pleasant 
annual visit, signalized, as custom demanded 
it should be, by the excitement attending some 
novel and perhaps surprising gift. There was 
also a cheering and peculiar festivity appro- 
priate to the day, the prominent dish being 
furmety — which we have to interpret as wheat 
grains boiled in sweet milk, sugared and spiced. 
In the northern part of England, and in Scot- 
land, there seems to have been a greater leaning 
to steeped pease fried in butter, with pepper 
and salt." 

Another gift very popular on "Mothering 



152 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

Sunday" was a simnel cake. Walsh says of 
this deUcacy: "In Shropshire, Yorkshire, and 
Herefordshire it has long been the custom to 
make during Lent a cake called a simnel, which 
is deemed especially appropriate as a "mother- 
ing" present. Herrick writes : 

I'll to thee a Simnell bring, 
'Gainst thou go'st a-mothering, 
So that when she blesseth thee, 
Half that blessing thou'lt give me. 

"Inside of a simnel cake was like a rich fruit 
cake, but it had an outer crust made of flour 
and water. Boiled first in water, it was subse- 
quently baked. The crust is colored yellow 
with saffron and ornamented with more or less 
art." 

In recalling the story of these old-time Moth- 
ers' Days, we must not think that our modern 
day can be traced back to the past. On the 
contrary, for many, many years in our busy and 
sometimes careless America, we have paid no 



MOTHERS* DAY 153 

attention to it at all. It is only within the last 
few years that the custom has arisen in this 
country. 

The wearing of a white carnation first began 
in memory of our martyred President, Wil- 
liam McKinley, who always wore this favorite 
flower in honor of his mother. In a Philadel- . 
phia Sunday School a special Mothers' Day was 
planned, as a reminder of loving, unselfish 
mothers, living or dead. This was the begin- 
ning of our Mothers' Day. The idea spread 
quickly, and in 191 4 was taken up by Congress, 
who recommended to the President that a day 
be set apart in honor of mothers ; and Congress 
said : "The service rendered the United States 
by the American mother is the greatest source 
of the country's strength and inspiration; we 
honor ourselves and the mothers of America 
when we do anything to give emphasis to the 
home as the fountain head of the State; and 
the American mother is doing so much for the 



154 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

home, the moral uplift, and religion, hence so 
much for good government and for humanity." 
These were noble words, and they agree 
with many sayings about mothers. The great 
Napoleon said : "France needs nothing so much 
as good mothers." An old writer says : "One 
good mother is worth a hundred schoolmas- 
ters." Oliver Wendell Holmes writes : 

"Youth fades, love droops, the leaves of friend- 
ship fall ; 
A mother's secret hope outlives them all." 

N. P. Willis wrote : "One lamp, thy mother's 
love, amid the stars shall lift its pure flame 
changeless, and before the throne of God burn 
through eternity." For centuries the most fa- 
mous artists have delighted to put their finest 
work in their Madonnas; and more than one 
modern painter has shown his love for his 
mother by painting her portrait. Whistler's 
picture of his mother is one of the best known 
works of that artist. 



MOTHERS' DAY 155 

On May 9, 1914, President Wilson issued a 
proclamation directing the government officials 
to display the United States flag on all govern- 
ment buildings, and inviting the people to dis- 
play the flag at their homes or other suitable 
places on the second Sunday in May as "a pub- 
lic expression of our love and reverence for the 
mothers of our country." 

Mothers' Day is now widely celebrated 
throughout the country. Schools usually cele- 
brate it on Friday, and business and other 
organizations on Saturday before the second 
Sunday in May. At a church in Seattle there 
was a very beautiful incident in connection 
with the day. All the women in the congrega- 
tion held their bouquets of white carnations 
aloft while the minister pronounced a blessing, 
and at the close of the service the flowers were 
gathered and placed on the graves of mothers 
whose relatives were not in the city to perform 
the duty. Governor Colquitt of Texas par- 



156 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

doned certain prisoners on Mothers' Day. It 
has been suggested that the day can be best 
observed by some distinct act of kindness— a 
visit, a letter home, a gift or tribute showing 
remembrance of mother and father. Jane Tay- 
lor's poem, "My Mother," is a very simple one; 
but many a grown-up son and daughter would 
do well to remember it. Some of its verses 
run: 



Who fed me from her gentle breast 
And hushed me in her arms to rest 
And on my cheek sweet kisses pressed? 
My mother. 

When pain and sickness made me cry 
Who gazed upon my heavy eye 
And wept for fear that I should die ? 
My mother. 

Who ran to help me when I fell 
And would some pretty story tell 
Or kiss the place to make it well? 

My mother. 



MOTHERS' DAY 157 

And can I ever cease to be 
Affectionate and kind to thee 
Who was so very kind to me, 

My mother? 



MEMORIAL DAY 
(May 30: in most States) 



IS9 



THE SLEEP OF THE BRAVE 

How sleep the brave, who sink to rest, 
By all their country's wishes blessed! 
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold, 
Returns to deck their hallowed mold. 
She there shall dress a sweeter sod 
Than Fancy's feet have ever trod. 

By fairy hands their knell is rung; 
By forms unseen their dirge is sung; 
There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray. 
To bless the turf that wraps their clay; 
And Freedom shall awhile repair. 
To dwell a weeping hermit there ! 

William Collins. 



i6o 



MEMORIAL DAY 

On Fame's eternal camping-ground 
Their silent tents are spread, 

And glory guards, with solemn round, 
The bivouac of the dead. 

A little over half a century ago our country 
was engaged in a desperate Civil War, one of 
the most momentous in all history. The men 
of the North were arrayed against their broth- 
ers of the South in a struggle to decide whether 
the nation should remain as a single Union of 
States, or whether the Southern Confederacy 
should be permitted to have a separate exist- 
ence. The trouble had come to a head over 
the question of slavery, but really dated back 
to the very beginning of our history. The Con- 
stitution did not define very clearly the ques- 

i6i 



i62 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

tion of States Rights — that is, just how much 
power of self-government was to be left with 
each State — and it finally took a war to settle it. 

You all know the result. Our Union of 
States has been preserved, and today the men 
of the South are among its most loyal defend- 
ers. 

Out of this great conflict has come one of 
our most beautiful of days — Memorial Day, 
or Decoration Day, as it was at first called. 
But Memorial Day is a much finer term, for it 
signifies more fully that it is our national day 
of remembrance. 

Very soon after the war was over it began 
to be a local custom, in many places, to decorate 
the graves of the soldier dead with flowers. 
Naturally, this was in the spring or early sum- 
mer, when blossoms were most plentiful; and 
from this arose the idea that a day be set aside 
especially for this purpose. The plan came to a 
head three years after the war in a suggestion 



MEMORIAL DAY 163 

made to General John A. Logan, commander 
of the Grand Army of the Republic, that a spe- 
cial day be chosen. General Logan at once ap- 
proved the proposal and issued an order in 
which he named May 30, 1868, "for the pur- 
pose of strewing with flowers or otherwise 
decorating the graves of comrades who died in 
defence of their country, and whose bodies 
now lie in almost every city, village, or hamlet 
churchyard in the land." Further on the order 
said : "It is the purpose of the commander-in- 
chief to inaugurate this observance with the 
hope that it will be kept from year to year 
while a survivor of the war remains to honor 
the memory of the departed." The hope ex- 
pressed by General Logan has been fully real- 
ized; for the idea was taken up so quickly that 
almost all of the States have now made the day 
a legal holiday, and there is little likelihood that 
its observance will ever be given up. All of the 
States, however, do not celebrate on May 30th, 



i64 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

the date being a few days earlier in some parts 
of the South. 

In the South there is also a separate memo- 
rial for the soldiers of the "Lost Cause/' and 
this is called "Confederate Memorial Day." 
In Louisiana it is celebrated on the birthday of 
Jefferson Davis (June 3), who was the first and 
only president of the short-lived Confederacy. 
Other Southern States have various dates, oc- 
curring as early as in April. But whether 
Northern or Southern the spirit is one and the 
same — a desire not to keep alive old differences, 
but to honor the memory of brave men who 
died in defence of their country. This idea was 
first expressed in a beautiful way by some 
Southern women, in Columbus, Mississippi, 
soon after the war. In caring for the graves 
of their loved ones who had fallen only a few 
months before, they strewed flowers not only 
on the graves of the Confederate soldiers but 
also on those of the Northern soldiers who had 



MEMORIAL DAY 165 

fallen there in the same battles. When this 
incident was reported in the newspapers, it 
produced a great wave of sympathy in the 
North, and inspired a noble poem by Francis 
Miles Finch, "The Blue and the Gray," the first 
and last verses of which are as follows : 

By the flow of the inland river. 

Whence the fleets of iron have fled. 
Where the blades of the grave-grass quiver, 
Asleep are the ranks of the dead : 
Under the sod and the dew, 

Waiting the judgment-day ; 
Under the one, the Blue, 
Under the other, the Gray. 

No more shall the war cry sever, 
Or the winding rivers be red ; 
They banish our anger forever 

When they laurel the graves of our dead ! 
Under the sod and the dew. 

Waiting the judgment-day ; 
Love and tears for the Blue, 
Tears and love for the Gray. 

This seed of mutual love and forgiveness 
sowed fifty years ago has taken mighty root. 



i66 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

Today our nation is all the stronger because 
of its ordeal by fire. And to show how com- 
pletely our sectional lines have been forgotten, 
the annual reunion of Confederate Veterans 
in 191 7 was held in Washington our national 
capital. The city that they had striven so hard 
to capture in their early manhood surrendered 
with open arms to the aged men who once wore 
the Gray. Side by side with their brothers in 
Blue they marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, 
reviewed by the President. Later he made 
them a memorable address and was elected an 
honorary member of their camp. And in the 
same month that these happy events took place, 
a monument to the great Southern general, 
Robert E. Lee, was unveiled in the historic 
battleground of Gettysburg. 

Memorial Day observances all over the land 
are of the same general character. Flags fly 
everywhere; and there is usually a parade 
either of the old veterans, or perhaps of the 



MEMORIAL DAY 167 

Boy Scouts or school children. The line of 
veterans is now becoming sadly thin, and after 
a very few more years the youngsters in khaki 
will have to take their place for good. After 
music and speech-making, the procession passes 
through the aisles of the cemetery marked by 
their small white headstones, and places bou- 
quets, wreaths, and flags upon the graves. It 
is a tribute not only to the dead, but a pledge 
of the living that we, too, stand ready to serve 
our country in her hour of need. 

The custom of placing flowers upon graves 
is a very old one, and has been observed by all 
the civilized countries of the world. The 
Greeks had impressive rites called Zoai, which 
were performed over each new grave. Offer- 
ings of flowers and olive branches were made, 
and if after a time a grave became covered with 
growing blossoms, it was thought to be an 
omen that the soul of the departed had found 
happiness. 



i68 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

The Romans had a special festival in honor 
of their dead, which was called the Parentalia, 
or Day of the Fathers. It was celebrated in 
February, and lasted for eight days. During 
this period the temples were closed ; public of- 
ferings and sacrifices were made; and the 
tombs were lavishly decorated with flowers, es- 
pecially violets and roses. 

In early England the Druids, a band of pagan 
priests, had a special memorial day about the 
first of November, when with gifts and strange 
rites they tried to soften the hearts of their 
gods, on behalf of the dead. In China and 
Japan a great deal is made of ancestor worship, 
and it is a mark of special piety to give flowers 
and other gifts for this purpose. 

All these practices have found modern ex- 
pression in our church festivals of All Saints' 
Day and All Souls' Day, as we shall see later ; 
but it is interesting to notice how the same idea 
has been taken up outside the church by an 




MEMORIAL DAY 



MEMORIAL DAY 169 

entire nation. Our Memorial Day is not a re- 
ligious festival but a patriotic observance — a 
pledging anew of fealty to our flag, while we 
honor the memory of the men who died for it. 
There is one other thing we should all remem- 
ber on Memorial Day — that thousands of sol- 
diers who fell in the Civil War do not rest in 
our cemeteries. Of them Will Carleton, in his 
poem, ''Cover Them Over,'* wrote: 

Cover the thousand who sleep far away- 



Sleep where their friends cannot find them to- 
day; ^ 

They who in mountain and hillside and dell 

Rest where they wearied, and lie where they 
fell. 

Softly the grass-blade creeps round their re- 
pose; 

Sweetly above them the wild flowret blows ; 

Zephyrs of freedom fly gently overhead, 

Whispering names for the patriot dead. 

So in our minds we will name them once more, 

So in our hearts we will cover them o'er ; 

Roses and lilies and violets blue 

Bloom in our souls for the brave and the true. 



I70 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 
Cover them over — yes, cover them over- 



Parent and husband and brother and lover ; 

Think of those far-away heroes of ours, 

And cover them over with beautiful flowers! 



FLAG DAY 
(June 14) 



171 



A SONG FOR FLAG DAY 

Your flag and my flag ! 

And how it flies today 
In your land and my land 

And half a world away ! 
Rose-red and blood-red 

The stripes forever gleam ; 
Snow-white and soul-white 



The good forefather's dream ; 
Sky-blue and true blue, with stars to gleam 

aright 

The gloried guidon of the day; a shelter 

through the night. 

Your flag and my flag ! 

And, oh, how much it holds 

Your land and my land 

Secure within its folds ! 
Your heart and my heart 

Beat quicker at the sight: 
Sun-kissed and wind-tossed, 

Red and blue and white. 
The one flag — the great flag — the flag for me 

and you 

Glorified all else beside — the red and white and 
blue! 

Wilbur D. Nesbit. 
172 



FLAG DAY 

O say, can you see by the dawn s early light 
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's 
last gleaming? 

The story of how Francis Scott Key came 
to write the w^ords of our national hymn is 
well known to nearly every boy and girl in the 
land. The rapture he felt a hundred years 
ago on an enemy ship when, after a night of 
battle, he saw the Star Spangled Banner still 
floating over Fort McHenry, is reflected in the 
hearts of each one of us whenever that flag is 
safe from peril. And so it is fitting that we 
should have our Flag Day, whether in peace or 
in war, to celebrate the birth of the emblem. 

In a memorable speech on Flag Day, in 191 7, 

just after we had entered the great World 

War, President Wilson said : 

173 



174 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

"We meet to celebrate Flag Day because 
this flag which we honor and under which we 
serve is the emblem of our unity, our power, 
our thought and purpose as a nation. It has 
no other character than that which we give it 
from generation to generation. The choices 
are ours. It floats in majestic silence above the 
hosts that execute those choices, whether in 
peace or in war. And yet, though silent, it 
speaks to us — speaks to us of the past, of the 
men and women who went before us and of the 
records they wrote upon it. We celebrate the 
day of its birth ; and from its birth until now it 
has witnessed a great history, has floated on 
high the symbol of great events, of a great 
plan of life worked out by a great people." 

Flag Day is one of the youngest of our holi- 
days. It is only twenty years old, and remem- 
bering that boys and girls in our schools are 
taught to salute the flag, the wonder is that a 
special day to be kept in its honor was not 



FLAG DAY 175 

thought of earlier. To New York belongs the 
honor of the first pubHc observance. In 1897 
the Governor of that State Issued a proclama- 
tion that on June 14 of that year the national 
flag should fly over all the public buildings of 
the State. Philadelphia also observed Flag 
Day the same year, and since then most of the 
States have followed New York's example, so 
that now there are few public buildings in the 
country over which our flag does not fly on the 
fourteenth of June. This particular date was 
chosen because on that day one hundred and 
twenty years earlier, the first "Stars and 
Stripes" flag was ordered by the Continental 
Congress, as our law-making body was then 
called. Why they chose this particular design 
is not certainly known, but there is a striking 
resemblance between it and the family arms 
of General Washington, which consisted of 
three stars in the upper portion and three bars 
running across the escutcheon, and the Ameri- 



176 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

can Flag may have been derived from this 
heraldic design. 

During the early days of the Revolution, 
several different emblems were used. In 
March, 1775, a red flag was hoisted in New 
York, bearing on one side the inscription 
"George Rex and the liberties of America,*' 
and on the other side, "No Popery." In July, 
1775, General Israel Putnam raised a flag over 
his troops, upon which was inscribed the motto 
of Massachusetts, ''Qui transtulit sustinet/' 
the other side bearing the words, "An Appeal 
to Heaven." In October, 1775, the floating 
batteries of Boston carried a white flag with a 
pine-tree upon it, and the motto, "An Appeal 
to Heaven." The Virginia troops bore a flag 
showing a rattlesnake coiled ready to strike, 
and the words underneath, "Don't tread on 
me." The rattlesnake became a favorite de- 
vice with the continental army and navy, and 
sometimes the reptile was shown in thirteen 



FLAG DAY 177 

parts or joints, each joint bearing the initials 
of one of the colonies. But this was not felt 
to be dignified enough for a national emblem, 
and on June 14, 1777, Congress passed a law- 
ordering, "That the flag of the United States 
be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, 
and that the union be thirteen stars, white in 
a blue field, representing a new constellation." 
This reference to "a new constellation" was 
a very appropriate one, because a constella- 
tion is a group of fixed stars to which a cer- 
tain name has been given, and this was pre- 
cisely the position of the American nation after 
it had adopted the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, about which you may read in another 
part of this book, under "Independence Day." 
The Continental Congress appointed a com- 
mittee to look after the making of the new 
national flag, and the following description of 
the design was prepared: "The stars of the 
new flag. represent the new constellation of 



178 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

States rising in the West. The idea was taken 
from the great constellation of Lyra, which in 
the hand of Orpheus signifies harmony. The 
blue in the field from the edges of the cove- 
nanter's banner in Scotland, significant of the 
league covenant of the United States against 
oppression, incidently involving the virtues of 
vigilance, perseverance and justice. The stars 
are disposed in a circle (this was the original 
pattern) symbolizing the perpetuity of the 
union; the ring like the serpent of the Egyp- 
tians, signifying eternity. The thirteen stripes 
showed with the stars the number of the 
united colonies, and denoted the subordination 
of the states to the Union, as well as equality 
among themselves. The red color in the Ro- 
man days was the signal of defiance, denoting 
daring; and the white, purity." 

It is said that Washington was a member 
of the committee, others being Robert Morris 
and Colonel Ross, who took a rough sketch of 



FLAG DAY 179 

the proposed design to a Mrs. John Ross, bet- 
ter known as Betsy Ross, upholsterer, who was 
noted for her neatness as a seamstress. She 
had made earlier flags for the troops, as is 
shown by an old bill paid by Congress the 
preceding year. She lived at 239 Arch Street, 
Philadelphia, and her home still stands, a 
shrine frequently visited by patriotic pilgrims. 
The story runs that the stars in the design had 
six points, but Mrs. Ross much preferred stars 
with five points. So with a few clips of her 
scissors she deftly cut out a five-pointed star 
for her distinguished visitors, who satisfied of 
its greater beauty, accepted the change. 

While the new flag which she made was 
approved by Congress, it was two or three 
years before it was generally adopted. Until 
the year 1780 many flags were used showing 
the stripes only, and General Washington 
wrote in 1779 that, "It is not yet settled what is 
the standard of the United States." Soon after 



i8o THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

its adoption, however, the new flag was hoisted 
on the naval vessels of the United States. The 
ship, Ranger, bearing the Stars and Stripes, 
and commanded by Captain Paul Jones, arrived 
at a French port. Her flag received, on Feb- 
ruary 14, 1778, the first salute ever paid to the 
American flag by foreign naval vessels. 

When Kentucky and Vermont were admitted 
into the Union in 1794, the Stars and Stripes 
were each increased to fifteen; but, in 181 8, 
Congress voted to restore the original stripes, 
and to add a new star for each new State on 
the Fourth of July following its admission into 
the Union. This is the flag that we have to- 
day, and as there are forty-eight States in 
the Union, there are that number of stars on 
the flag. 

Perhaps no flag on sea or land shows its 
grace and beauty of design, so well as the em- 
blem of the United States, and its proportions 
are perfect when it is accurately and properly 



FLAG DAY i8i 

made — one-half as broad as it is long — the 
first stripe at the top red, the next white, and 
the alternating colors making the last stripe 
red. The blue field for the stars is as broad 
and wide as the first seven stripes. American 
bunting only is now used in the manufacture 
of the Stars and Stripes, and these flags are 
woven for the government on American 
looms. 

While the fourteenth of June, 1897, was the 
first original Flag Day it was by no means the 
earliest date on which the emblem was hoisted 
over a public school. This has become an in- 
creasing observance for many years past, and 
is not limited to the single day; but the flag 
flies on every school day. One of the earliest 
recorded instances of this use of the flag was 
at a little schoolhouse on Catamount Hill, 
Franklin County, Massachusetts. It was in 
May, 1812, that their home-made flag was first 
thrown to the breeze. 



i82 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

Nowadays when the flag and school are 
found so constantly together we often lose sight 
of the great things for which the emblem 
stands. A flag-raising and flag-lowering cere- 
mony every day will add much to our love and 
respect for it. The oral Flag Salute used in 
our schools is : "I pledge allegiance to my flag, 
and to the Republic for which it stands; one 
nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for 
all." Our Boy Scouts are probably aware that 
it is a part of naval etiquette that the flag shall 
never be allowed to touch the deck of the ship, 
or the ground, if on land. It should not be 
hoisted before sunrise, nor left flying after sun- 
set, unless in time of battle, and this explains 
the meaning of Key's famous lines quoted at 
the first of this story. One of the most impres- 
sive of ceremonies at the West Point Military 
Academy is the lowering of the flag, while the 
sunset gun booms, the band plays, and the ca- 
dets stand at attention. 



FLAG DAY 183 

Another rule is that when the flag is to be 
placed at half-mast, out of respect for the dead, 
it is first hoisted to the top of the staff, then 
lowered into place. There are still other rules 
governing its use, some of them prescribed by 
law, and while they seem like little things they 
help us to remember the tremendous meaning 
behind our country's flag. Some of them are 
as follows: 

The flag should be saluted by all present 
while being hoisted or lowered. This is done 
by standing at attention, and uncovering or 
touching the hat or cap. 

When the flag is passing on parade, or in 
review, the spectator should rise if sitting; 
halt if walking; and always uncover and stand 
at attention. 

When the flag is carried in parade with any 
other flag it should have the place of honor, at 
the right. If a number of flags are carried, 
the flag should either precede the others, or be 



i84 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

carried in the center, above the others, on a 
higher staff. 

When the flag is used as a banner, the union 
should be at the right (as you face the flag) ; 
when draped, or when used as an altar 
covering, the union should be at the left. 
Nothing should ever be placed upon the 
flag. 

Neither the flag nor a picture of it should 
be used for any advertising purposes whatso- 
ever; nor as toys, fans, parasols, paper nap- 
kins, sofa cushions ; nor as a cover for a table, 
desk or box; nor in any other debasing man- 
ner. 

It is unlawful to trample upon, mutilate, or 
otherwise treat the flag with insult or con- 
tempt ; or to*attach to it any inscription or ob- 
ject whatsoever. 

Whenever the *'Star Spangled Banner" is 
being played or sung, all present should rise 
and stand at attention, 




O John H. Tarbell 



FLAG DAY 



FLAG DAY 185 

In time of war the flag flies over many of 
our homes. Every day then is Flag Day. But 
a special day — the Birthday of the Flag — is 
none the less valuable in recalling anew the 
stirring events which led up to its birth, and 
the inner meaning of its stars and stripes. In 
a poem, "Our Colors,'* by Laura E. Richards, 
we have this meaning well expressed : 



Red ! 'tis the hue of battle. 

The pledge of victory; 

In sunset light, in northern night, 

It flashes brave and free. 

'*Then paint with red thy banner," 

Quoth Freedom to the Land, 

"And when thy sons go forth to war, 

This sign be in their hand !" 

White ! 'tis the sign of purity. 
Of everlasting truth ; 
The snowy robe of childhood, 
The stainless mail of youth. 
Then paint with white thy banner, 
And pure as northern snow 
May these thy stately children 
In truth and honor go. 



i86 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

Blue ! 'tis the tint of heaven, 
The morning's gold-shot arch, 
The burning deeps of noontide, 
The stars' unending march. 
Then paint with blue thy banner. 
And bid thy children raise 
At daybreak, noon, and eventide 
Their hymn of love and praise. 

Valor and truth and righteousness. 
In threefold strength to-day 
Raise high the flag triumphant, 
The banner glad and gay. 
"And keep thou well thy colors," 
Quoth Freedom to the Land, 
"And 'gainst a world of evil 
Thy sons and thou shall stand." 



INDEPENDENCE DAY 
(July 4) 



187 



THE SHIP OF STATE 

Thou too sail on, O Ship of State! 

Sail on, O Union, strong and great. 

Humanity with all its fears. 

With all the hopes of future years, 

Is hanging breathless on thy fate ! 

We know what master laid thy keel, 

What workmen laid thy ribs of steel. 

Who made each mast and sail and rope, 

In what a forge, with what a heat 

Were shaped the anchors of thy hope. 

Fear not each sudden sound and shock, 

'Tis of the wave and not the rock, 

'Tis but the flapping of the sail. 

And not the rent made by the gale. 

In spite of rocks and tempest roar, 

In spite of false lights on the shore, 

Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea ! 

Our hearts, our hopes are all with thee ; 

Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, 

Our faith triumphant o'er our fears. 

Are all with thee ; are all with thee ! 

H. W. Longfellow. 



i88 



INDEPENDENCE DAY 

Not long ago some boys were asked if they 
knew on what date Independence Day was 
celebrated. They gave it up, and on being told 
that it was on July 4, one of them retorted: 
"Well, why didn't you say the Fourth of July, 
and be done with it?" 

Yes, here is one holiday the date of which 
is easy to remember if we use the popular name 
for it ; and we are not likely to do anything else. 
Ever since that greatest of all July Fourths in 
our history, it has lived in our affections by 
this one name, and no amount of "Independ- 
ence Day" is going to change it ! It is a legal 
holiday in every State in the Union — our one 
distinctive, universal, national holiday. 

Independence Day is really the birthday of 
189 



190 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

our Nation. It celebrates the first definite 
break of the American colonies with Great 
Britain, when the Declaration of Independence 
was passed by the Continental Congress. The 
story of the events leading up to this historic 
act are well known. Scattered hostilities had 
been taking place for several months. War 
had been declared against the mother country, 
unless certain oppressions should cease. Pe- 
titions were made. Threats were hurled. But 
still England would not regard the rights of 
the Colonists seriously. In her eyes they were 
only "rebels'* to be dealt with as seemed best 
to her statesmen. The Colonists protested that 
they were not rebels, but only "petitioners in 
arms" ; and that they were willing to lay down 
their arms if their wrongs were righted. 

After all this "sparring for position," which 
got neither side anywhere, things began to 
move more quickly, and in larger fashion. 
Down in North Carolina and Tennessee a band 



INDEPENDENCE DAY 191 

of patriots had already formulated the Meck- 
lenburg Declaration, renouncing all connection 
with England; and when the Continental Con- 
gress met in 1776, a strong sentiment for en- 
tire separation from the mother country was 
apparent. On June 7, Richard Henry Lee, of 
the Virginia delegation, instructed, he said, by 
the unanimous vote of the Council of Virginia, 
presented the following resolution : "That these 
United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, 
free and independent States ; that they are ab- 
solved from all allegiance to the British Crown ; 
that all political connection between them and 
the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, 
totally dissolved." 

John Adams of Massachusetts quickly sec- 
onded the motion. A debate of four days 
followed, as this was a very perilous matter 
to all of them, and then a committee was ap- 
pointed to prepare such a declaration, setting 
forth the grievance that had brought it about. 



192 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

The committee consisted of Thomas Jefferson, 
Benjamin FrankHn, John Adams, Roger Sher- 
man, and Robert B. Livingstone. The actual 
writing of the paper is commonly attributed to 
Thomas Jefferson; and while he may have 
made use of the phrases of others in its compo- 
sition, such as the recital of our grievances 
v^hich were on the lips of everyone, he brought 
to bear upon it a literary skill and power of 
collecting ideas, which has made it one of the 
most forcible documents in the history of the 
world. 

The Declaration of Independence was com- 
pleted and laid before Congress on June 28, 
and after another week of earnest debate, and 
one or two small changes, it was accepted by 
Congress, and signed by the President of Con- 
gress, John Hancock, in that full, bold signa- 
ture so familiar to us all, July 4, 1776. On 
August 2, the engrossed copy now so carefully 
preserved in a light-proof safe at Washington 



INDEPENDENCE DAY 193 

was formally presented to Congress and 
received the signatures of delegates from every 
one of the thirteen colonies. 

We of a later day should ever be mindful 
of the bravery of these men in Congress. 
Their act meant that if the cause of the new 
nation should fail, every one of the signers 
could be convicted of high treason and put to 
death. As Franklin aptly put it : "We must all 
hang together or we will all hang separately." 
Another signer, Charles Carroll of Maryland, 
was told that there were so many Carrolls in 
his State, that the King's troops would not 
know which one to arrest. "Yes, they will," 
replied Carroll, and at once wrote "of Carroll- 
ton" after his name. 

While Congress deliberated on that first 
great Fourth of July the streets of Philadelphia 
were thronged with excited men. Around the 
State House, where Congress was assembled, 
they had stood all day long, waiting for acHon 



194 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

on the momentous measure. All business was 
forgotten while the people pressed forward, all 
eyes fixed on the building, or upon the belfry 
where the old bell-ringer waited the signal. 
This bell had been brought from England, but 
around its rim these prophetic words were 
cast : ^'Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, 
unto all the inhabitants thereof." 

Today it was to fulfil its mission. At two 
o'clock in the afternoon, after long hours of 
waiting, the door was opened. A boy ran out 
into the street waving his arms and shouting 
wildly to the bell-man: "Ring! ring! ring!" 
And the famous Liberty Bell boomed out its 
message to the joyful people. 

How they shouted! What rejoicing! 

How the old bell shook the air, 
Till the clang of freedom ruffled 

The calmly gliding Delaware ! 
How the bonfires and the torches 

Lighted up the night's repose, 
And from the flames, like fabled Phoenix, 

Our glorious Liberty arose ! 




DRAFTING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 



INDEPENDENCE DAY 195 

That old State House bell is silent, 

Hushed is now its clamorous tongue; 
But the spirit it awakened 

Still is living, — ever young; 
And when we greet the smiling sunlight 

On the Fourth of each July, 
We will ne'er forget the bell-man 

Who, betwixt the earth and sky, 
Rung out, loudly, "Independence !" 

Which, please God, shall never die! 



Four days later a more formal celebration 
occurred on a "warm sunshine morning," 
Marshall states, in the yard of the State 
House, "where, in the presence of a great con- 
course of people, the Declaration of Independ- 
ence was read by John Nixon. The company 
declared their approbation by three huzzas. 
The King's Arms were taken down in the 
Court Room, State House." Then they went 
to the Commons, where the same was pro- 
claimed to each of the five battalions. It was 
"a fine, starlight, pleasant evening. There 
were bonfires, ringing bells, with other great 



196 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

demonstrations of joy upon the unanimity and 
agreement of the Declaration." 

A remarkable coincidence in connection with 
the Fourth is that Thomas Jefferson, the au- 
thor of the Declaration, and John Adams, one 
of the signers and its great supporter, both of 
whom were afterwards Presidents of the 
United States, died on the same day, and that 
Independence Day, 1826. On June 30th of 
that year someone asked John Adams, who 
was then very ill, for a toast to be given in his 
name on the Fourth of July. He replied, "In- 
dependence forever!" When the day came, 
hearing the noise of bells and cannon, he asked 
the cause, and on being told, he murmured, "In- 
dependence forever !" and before evening was 
dead. 

The first military celebration of Independ- 
ence Day was held July 9, under the direct or- 
ders of General Washington, who notified Con- 
gress of the event as follows: "Agreeably to 



INDEPENDENCE DAY 197 

the request of Congress I caused the Declara- 
tion to be proclaimed before all the army under 
my immediate command ; and have the pleasure 
to inform them, that the measure seemed to 
have their most hearty assent ; the expressions 
and behavior, both of officers and men, testify- 
ing their warmest approbation of it." 

Not content with thus celebrating freedom, 
Webb relates that, "last night the statue of 
George III was tumbled down and beheaded, 
the troops having long had an inclination to do 
so, thought the time of publishing a declaration 
of independence a favorable opportunity, for 
which they received a check in this day's or- 
ders." 

Each year thereafter the day was celebrated 
by the army. The usual ceremonies were a sa- 
lute of thirteen guns, the reading of the Decla- 
ration, a double allowance of grog, and the 
freeing of men confined in the guard-house. 



198 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

The civilians also took up the idea and cele- 
brated the day in its earliest years. 

That everybody connected with the event at 
once saw its immense significance is shown by 
many other accounts. At the time of the sign- 
ing of the Declaration, John Adams wrote to 
his wife a letter which has become historic. "I 
am apt to believe," he wrote, "that it (the day) 
will be celebrated by succeeding generations as 
the great anniversary festival. It ought to be 
commemorated as the day of deliverance, by 
solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It 
ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, 
with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, 
and illuminations, from one end of this conti- 
nent to the other, from this time forward for 



evermore." 



His words have proved prophetic to the 
smallest detail. We have had pomp and 
parade, and guns and bonfires without limit. 
We have exploded fire-crackers by day and 



INDEPENDENCE DAY 199 

fireworks by night, until the "Glorious Fourth" 
has become the noisiest — and the most danger- 
ous — of all our holidays. Indeed, so many peo- 
ple have been killed or maimed by these 
celebrations that, of recent years, there has 
been a growing sentiment for a "safe and sane'* 
Fourth — with more music and parades, and 
less powder. Many towns are now burning 
their fire-works in one big evening celebration, 
instead of trusting them in the hands of young 
Tom^ Dick, and Harry, all over town. There 
is no doubt that, by this means, they can see 
much finer fireworks, and they stand a better 
chance of keeping all their fingers and thumbs. 
The Fourth will ever remain one of our 
most treasured days; but in its celebration let 
us be mindful of its deeper meaning. 



Ring out the joy bells ! Once again, 
With waving flags and rolling drums, 

We greet the Nation's Birthday, when, 
In glorious majesty it comes. 



200 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

Ah, day of days ! Alone it stands, 
While, like a halo round it cast, 

The radiant work of patriot hands, 
Shines the bright record of the past. 



LABOR DAY 
(First Monday in September) 



20I 



THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH 

Under a spreading chestnut-tree 

The village smithy stands ; 
The smith, a mighty man is he, 

With large and sinewy hands; 
And the muscles of his brawny arms 

Are strong as iron bands. 

Toiling, rejoicing, sorrowing, 
Onward through life he goes ; 

Each morning sees some task begun, 
Each evening sees its close ; 

Something attempted, something done, 
Has earned a night's repose. 

Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend, 
For the lesson thou hast taught! 

Thus at the flaming forge of life 
Our fortunes must be wrought ; 

Thus on its sounding anvil shaped 
Each burning deed and thought ! 

H. W. Longfellow. 



202 



K 



LABOR DAY 

The name of this popular holiday has a curi- 
ous twist to it — what learned writers would 
call a "paradox." We call it "Labor Day," 
when as a matter of fact it is a day of rest. Of 
course, what we really mean is that on this ^ ^-f^^" 
day the great hosts of workingmen all over the 
country celebrate Labor, its dignity and what 
it has accomplished. 

We are so used to thinking of present-day 
things just as they are, that we do not often 
realize the fact that they did not always exist 
for our use. Take the most common things of 
life — such as the pen, ink, and paper which 
we use for writing — they are very recent 
things, indeed, and in their making a great 
many men have been employed. In your 

203 



204 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

grandfather's time they used to whittle pens 
out of goose quills. In the same way, the food 
we eat, the clothes we wear, the fuel we burn 
— every item in our daily lives is made possible 
to us by the one thing — Labor. 

That is why our law-makers have decided to 
set apart a special day in its honor. But be- 
yond this sentimental reason lies another and a 
deeper one, which is the desire to bring to- 
gether the interests of this great branch of 
public service, and those of that other great 
branch with which it sometimes conflicts, 
called Capital. By Capital we mean the money 
necessary to develop a piece of work and to 
pay the men who do it. It is quite as import- 
ant to an undertaking as is Labor, and if 
rightly used there would be no quarrel between 
the two. Labor Day is a common meeting 
ground for them. 

There is another fact about this day of 
which we may well be proud, which is that 



LABOR DAY 205 

America was the first country in the world to 
have a Labor Day and to establish it by law 
as a public holiday. There is an old saying, 
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," 
and certainly no right-minded person can be- 
grudge the wage-earners of our country one 
"day off" in the course of the year. And not 
only do the workers themselves enjoy the holi- 
day, but in our cities where large parades take 
place, no small amount of pleasure is given to 
the spectators also. The farmers have for 
many years held their Labor Day in the form 
of harvest festivals, when, together with their 
help, they have made merry over the ingather- 
ing of the crops. It is something like the 
English Harvest Home, about which you may 
read in the story of Thanksgiving. Labor 
Day, however, is a holiday of all the people; 
and, as has been well said, "this great thing 
bids for something still greater. For, if the 
public thus puts labor first in value and honor. 



2o6 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

then labor may well put the public first among 
its ideals and interests." 

The word "labor" has been defined as mean- 
ing "human activity put forth as a means to 
the production of goods." Thousands of years 
ago labor was carried on by a system of slav- 
ery. Later, in what are called the Middle Ages, 
labor was a modified form of slavery known 
as selfdom. The serfs were bound to obey 
their lords, and, on the other hand, they had 
certain rights and privileges which the lords 
were obliged to respect. But this system was 
not suitable for a manufacturing and com- 
mercial people, and by degrees it gave place 
to what is termed free labor, or the hiring of 
people for fixed wages. This was done first 
in England about five hundred years ago, then 
in the other countries of western Europe, and 
finally in Russia in the latter half of the nine- 
teenth century. 

In America, in 1869, there was formed an 



LABOR DAY 207 

association of workingmen, known as the 
Knights of Labor, a sort of secret society, the 
members of which had a great many disputes 
among themselves. At last a number of them 
left the society and helped to found a much 
larger society now known as the American Fed- 
eration of Labor. Each trade had its "union,'* 
or special society, and each of these unions 
became part of the Federation. The first con- 
vention was held at Pittsburgh, in November, 
1 88 1. From this time the Federation has 
grown so rapidly that at the present day there 
are over two million members, and over one 
hundred unions. It is of these various unions 
of trades such as the blacksmiths, carpenters, 
miners, masons, stone-cutters, mine-workers, 
printers, teamsters, metal-workers, and others, 
that the great parades on Labor Day are made 
up. 

Perhaps the first real beginning of Labor 
Day was a parade of the Central Labor Union 



2o8 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

of New York, held in that city on September 5, 
1882. Next year a similar parade was held 
on the first Monday in September, and the 
workingmen's organizations all over the coun- 
try began petitioning the various States to 
make that day, Labor Day, a legal holiday. 
Oregon was the first State to pass such a law, 
in 1887, declaring the first Monday in Septem- 
ber a public holiday to be known as Labor Day. 
Other States followed the example thus set, but 
two or three chose other dates for the holiday ; 
thus, North Carolina set aside the first Thurs- 
day in September ; Pennsylvania, the first Sat- 
urday in that month ; and a part of Louisiana, 
November 25 th. Finally, Congress, in 1894, 
recognized the day as falling on the first Mon- 
day in September. 

Two important features of Labor Day are, 
first, that the various unions shall lay aside any 
differences that they may have; and second, 
that employers are asked to meet with the 



LABOR DAY 209 

workers to discuss matters relating to the wel- 
fare of the laboring classes. The conditions 
under which men, women, and children work 
in our factories and workshops today are far 
better than they were not so very many years 
ago. Formerly, women and children were em- 
ployed for very long periods at a time; ma- 
chinery was poorly p^uarded and many acci- 
dents and deaths occurred ; the workshops were 
too small for the number of workpeople em- 
ployed in them; and wages were not always 
paid in money, but were often paid in orders 
on a store kept by the company. All these 
things have been bettered and are constantly 
being improved ; and the labor unions have had 
their large part in the work. But employers 
also have become better acquainted with the 
needs and conditions of their workers. Indus- 
trial schools have been established throughout 
the country. Boards of arbitration have been 
formed to settle disputes between employers 



2IO THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

and workers. These prevent many "strikes'* 
with their attendant suffering. Above all, the 
shops, factories, and mills are inspected to see 
that they are sanitary, and that the work- 
people may labor in them without endangering 
their health. These are some of the things 
among the so-called "rights of labor," which 
come to mind when we celebrate Labor Day. 
So you see it is an important holiday. There 
will probably be matters on which differences 
of opinion will always arise; but Labor Day 
should be made the occasion to show the coun- 
try the workers' special needs, and for the 
workers to get together to hear what the coun- 
try needs of them. 

Labor Day is one of our firmly established 
holidays, and may be made one of our noblest 
if we approach it in the proper spirit. Let us 
all honor the workers, and the product of their 
hands. As James Russell Lowell has said : 



LABOR DAY 211 

There is always work, 
And tools withal, for those who will; 
And blessed are the horny hands of toil. 



COLUMBUS DAY 
(October 12) 



213 



COLUMBUS 

I see a galleon of Spanish make 

That westward like a winged creature flies 

Above a sea dawn-bright, and arched with 

skies 
Expectant of the sun and morning-break. 
The sailors from the deck their land-thirst 

slake 
With peering o'er the waves, until their eyes 
Discern a coast that faint and dream-like lies, 
The while they pray, weep, laugh, — or madly 

take 
Their shipmates in their arms and speak no 

word. 
And then I see a figure, tall, removed 
A little from the others, as behooved. 
That since the dawn has neither spoke nor 

stirred ; 
A noble form, the looming mast beside, 
Columbus, calm, his prescience verified. 

Richard E. Burton. 



214 



COLUMBUS DAY 

There is an old saying which runs, "The 
unexpected always happens" ; and the truth of 
it is well shown in the career of Christopher 
Columbus, in whose honor this holiday is kept. 

When Columbus set sail on the third day of 
August, 1492, on the voyage which was to 
prove of such immense importance to the whole 
world, he thought he was on his way to India. 
He stumbled on America, so to speak, and when 
he found himself among the islands now known 
as the Bahamas, he called them the "West 
Indies," and the natives "Indians." He might 
well have expected that his name would be 
given to the land which he later explored ; but 
that honor was bestowed upon another, Amer- 
igo Vespucci. He planted colonies in the New 

215 



2i6 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

World; and for reward he was sent back to 
Spain in chains. The new country had filled 
his mind with visions of untold wealth for 
himself as well as for Spain ; but he died alone, 
friendless and in poverty. All these things 
show that the unexpected was always happen- 
ing with him. And it is quite certain that if 
he were alive today, he would have to acknowl- 
edge that the most unexpected event of them all 
is the celebration of a special day in his honor, 
by a great nation of more than a hundred mil- 
lion people, most of whom do not speak his 
native tongue. 

It is usual to speak of Columbus as the dis- 
coverer of America. It would be more correct 
to speak of him as a discoverer of America. 
Students of history have found that, fifteen 
hundred years ago, a Buddhist monk from 
China, named Hoei-Shin, reached this conti- 
nent and visited what is now called Mexico. 
Then in the year 860, some Norsemen, the sea- 



COLUMBUS DAY 217 

rovers of those days, were driven ashore in a 
storm on the island of Iceland, and later a sim- 
ilar accident drove them to the coasts of what 
is now Greenland. Two of their number voy- 
aged along the coast, landed on Nova Scotia, 
which they called Markland, because it was so 
well wooded and after two days more of sail- 
ing they made land on the coast of New Eng- 
land. On the shores of the Charles River, 
near Cambridge, Massachusetts, there are 
traces of houses believed to have been erected 
by these Northmen. There is also good rea- 
son for beheving that in the year 11 70 some 
Welshmen came over. None of these **dis- 
coveries'* of America, however, led to any 
development of the country; they are men- 
tioned here merely to mark the fact that Co- 
lumbus was not the first white man to see the 
western hemisphere ; but from his voyages have 
come the settlement and building up of the 
land. 



2i8 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

The hero of Columbus Day was born near 
Genoa in Italy, probably in the year 1436, but 
various dates are given, some writers fixing 
his date of birth as late as 1447. He was 
christened in Italian, Christoforo Columbo. 
Later when he went to Spain he was called 
Cristobal Colon. The Latin form is Christo- 
pherus Columbus, the English shortening the 
first name to Christopher. The feminine form 
of "Columbus" means "dove," and Christo- 
pherus means "Christ-bearer." You will see 
later on that Columbus, at the time of his land- 
ing in the New World, lived up to this title. 

According to some writers, the boy Christo- 
pher was sent to the University of Pavia, but 
this seems doubtful, as at fifteen he went to 
sea. Piracy was common and looked upon as 
a brave occupation in those days, and during 
a sea-fight Columbus was wrecked on the 
shores of Portugal, probably about 1470. He 
settled in Lisbon and made voyages to the Ma- 



COLUMBUS DAY 219 

deira Islands, the Azores, and to Iceland. Co- 
lumbus's eldest son, Ferdinand, speaking of his 
father's appearance about this time, says that 
"although young, his hair was perfectly white," 
and that he "was tall and commanding in ap- 
pearance and in manner." Columbus was very 
clever in the drawing of maps and charts, and 
as the Portuguese were the most energetic 
sailors of the time, he was able to help support 
his father's family as well as his wife's in this 
way. He was married to the daughter of an 
Italian cavalier and navigator who died poor, 
leaving little but charts and instruments. 

The mind of Columbus was filled with the 
idea of finding a way to India across the west- 
em ocean, and he applied to his native State, 
Genoa, for assistance in fitting out such an 
expedition. Being refused, he then appealed to 
King John II of Portugal who not only kept 
putting him off with half promises, but actually 
sent an adventurer, Dominguez do Arco, to 



220 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

discover, if possible, an island beyond the 
Azores, of which tales had reached the Portu- 
guese court. This man returned with such 
terrifying tales of the great ocean that the 
king decided that Columbus's plan was not 
practicable. 

Columbus became disgusted with the treat- 
ment he had received from the Portuguese 
court, and went to Spain, first to Cordova and 
thence to Salamanca asking for help to carry 
out his great scheme. At the latter place he 
pleaded his cause before the learned profes- 
sors and philosophers, who laughed him to 
scorn. Being poor and hungry, and unknown 
in the city, he set out on foot with his little boy, 
Diego, and asked for bread and water at the 
convent called La Rabida. The prior of the 
convent proved a friend in need. He became 
interested in Columbus's plans and gave him 
letters of introduction to persons who would be 
likely to help him. 



COLUMBUS DAY 221 

We have not space here to tell you about all 
his adventures, but after many disappointments 
he was granted an interview by Queen Isabella, 
and her husband. King Ferdinand. It was 
about this time that the Moors were being 
driven out of Spain. Columbus was present 
at the conquest of Granada, when 300,000 
Moors marched out, and Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella entered the city in triumph. Isabella was 
much impressed by the manner in which Co- 
lumbus laid his plans before her, but the king 
said that his war with the Moors had left him 
without money sufficient to help this new 
scheme. Then Queen Isabella declared that 
she herself would undertake the cost of the 
expedition, and would, if necessary, sell her 
jewels for the purpose. In the end, Ferdinand 
gave way, and on April 17, 1492, the two sov- 
ereigns and* Columbus signed a contract, some 
parts of which, it must be admitted, show that 
Columbus was somewhat grasping in his de- 



222 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

mands. For instance, he and his heirs were to 
have forever the title of admiral of all lands 
and continents that might be discovered; he 
was to be viceroy and governor; and he was 
also to have one-tenth of all pearls, precious 
stones, gold, and silver that might be found in 
the new lands. 

On August 3, 1492, Columbus left the little 
monastery of La Rabida, and set sail from 
Palos with one hundred and twenty men on 
three ships, the Santa Maria, the Nina, and the 
Pinta, At the Columbian Exposition held at 
Chicago in 1893, to celebrate the four hun- 
dredth anniversary of Columbus's voyage, 
there were no more interesting exhibits than 
the reproductions of the little monastery of La 
Rabida, and of the three ships which formed 
Columbus's fleet. The largest of these ships 
measured only sixty-three feet in length — 
a striking contrast to the huge vessels of mod- 
ern times — and they depended entirely upon 



COLUMBUS DAY 223 

sails. You are all familiar with the accounts 
of Columbus's wonderful journey across the 
great unexplored ocean, of the trials he had 
with his sailors, of delays by calms, and of his 
first sight of the shores of the New World on 
October 12, 1492. If you should visit the Ba- 
hama Islands, on an eminence overlooking the 
bay at Watling's Island, you will see a stone 
shaft with an inscription on a tablet reading: 

On This Spot 

Christopher Columbus 

First Set Foot on the Soil of 

the New World 

Columbus called this island San Salvador. 
From it he sailed from island to island and at 
length came to Cuba, into the interior of which 
he journeyed, but not far enough to see that 
it was an island. He thought that it was a 
part of the mainland of Asia. On January 4, 
1493, he started back to Spain, leaving forty 
men at Haiti, called by the Spaniards Espa- 



224 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

fiola. His expedition had met with ill-fortune 
on this coast, and his own ship, the Santa Ma- 
ria, had been wrecked. 

On his return to Spain he landed at Palos 
and journeyed overland to Barcelona, where 
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella received 
him with the highest honors. He brought back 
with him gold and many specimens of the prod- 
ucts of the New World, not to forget some In- 
dians, who were objects of the greatest aston- 
ishment. When he proposed a second expedi- 
tion there was no trouble about getting the ne- 
cessary funds and ships. 

On September 25, 1493, Columbus set out 
on his second voyage to the West. On visit- 
ing the harbor where he had left the forty men, 
he found the fort deserted, the garrison having 
been murdered by the natives. This expedi- 
tion consisted of seventeen ships and 1,500 
men, and for two years Columbus endeavored 
to establish some sort of government among 



COLUMBUS DAY 225 

the new colonies. He was not very successful, 
and in 1496 he again returned to Spain. 

Two years later he embarked on his third 
voyage. This time he took a more southerly 
course and sighted Trinidad. After a short 
rest he coasted the South American continent, 
which he now saw for the first time. On reach- 
ing Santo Domingo, then the principal town in 
the colonies, he found trouble everywhere.. 
Many of the colonists had rebelled during his 
absence, and he was unable to restore peace 
and order. By the authority of the Spanish 
court Francisco de Bobadilla was sent out to 
take the place of Columbus as governor of the 
new colonies. He treated Columbus with great 
injustice and cruelty. Without troubling to 
inquire into the charges made against Colum- 
bus by the colonists, he placed him in irons, 
would not allow him to see even his brothers, 
and sent him back to Spain. The sight of the 
Admiral in chains caused a reaction in his 



226 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

favor, and King Ferdinand quickly ordered his 
release and summoned him to court. 

Columbus now tried to secure his rights 
under the first contract which he had made 
with the king and queen, but was unsuccessful. 
He then asked for a fleet with which to con- 
tinue his discoveries, and this was granted him 
on the condition that he did not call at San 
Domingo. In May, 1502, he set out on his 
fourth and last voyage, this time to seek a 
passage to the real East. He sailed along the 
coast of Central America and tried to plant 
a colony at Veragua. But after a few weeks 
of it, the colonists were disheartened and would 
stay no longer. His ships were in bad shape, 
and the Admiral himself was in poor health 
and had to take to his bed for several weeks. 
After many trials, dangers, and disasters, he 
was forced to return home, landing in Spain, 
on November 7, 1503. Within a few weeks 
Queen Isabella died. Columbus pleaded in 



COLUMBUS DAY 227 

vain with the king to grant him the rights 
which belonged to him and his children, but 
he had no success. He retired to Vallodolid, 
where ''in a mean room, clad in the Franciscan 
garb, his chains hung on the wall to remind 
him of the vanity of this world and of its in- 
gratitude, he wore out his last sad, destitute 
days, dying on May 20, 1506." 

The finding of the New World has been de- 
scribed as "the most important event which 
has occurred since the advent of Jesus Christ," 
and doubtless this is true. But, because he dis- 
covered America by accident, as it were, some 
writers have gone so far as to say that "we 
owe nothing to Columbus." That this view 
is shared by only a few is shown by the monu- 
ments which have been erected in honor of 
the great navigator both here and abroad. All 
praise is due to Columbus for his strong faith 
in his enterprise, for his wonderful persever- 
ance, and for a determination to succeed which 



228 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

nothing could daunt. Columbus was a relig- 
ious man in his way. He wrote the name of 
Christ on his banner and gave Him all honor. 
When he landed on the shores of San Salvador 
he held a sword in one hand and the banner 
of Christ in the other. The company fell upon 
their knees and praised God. But Columbus 
was far from being a perfect man, and it is 
to be feared that his treatment of the natives 
in the early days or that of the men under 
him, whom he did not check, was the cause of 
his final lack of success in establishing colonies. 
After all has been said, however, the fact 
remains that we do owe a very great debt to 
the fearless navigator who, in a mere cockle- 
shell of a ship, sailed out of Spain he knew not 
whither ; and it is most fitting that a day should 
be set apart on which to honor him whose faith 
and daring gave to the world an ever-widening 
home of liberty and freedom. As Mr. Chaun- 
cey M. Depew, speaking at the dedication cere- 




COLUMBUS 



COLUMBUS DAY 229 

monies of the World's Columbian Exposition 
at Chicago, said: "All hail, Columbus, discov- 
erer, dreamer, hero, and apostle ! We here, of 
every race and country, recognize the horizon 
which bounded his vision and the infinite scope 
of his genius. The voice of gratitude and 
praise for all the blessings which have been 
showered upon mankind by his adventure is 
limited to no language, but is uttered in every 
tongue. Neither marble nor brass can fitly 
form his statue. Continents are his monu- 
ment; and unnumbered millions who enjoy in 
their liberties and their happiness the fruits 
of his faith will reverently guard and preserve, 
from century to century, his name and 
fame." 

Columbus Day has also been called Discov- 
ery Day. It was set aside as a legal holiday 
under the latter name by President Benjamin 
Harrison, in 1892, who said in his proclama- 
tion: 



230 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

''Columbus stood in his age as the pioneer of 
progress and achievement. The system of uni- 
versal education is in our age the most prom- 
inent and salutary feature of the spirit of 
enlightenment, and it is peculiarly appropriate 
that the schools be made by the people the cen- 
ter of the day's demonstration. Let the na- 
tional flag float over every school-house in the 
country, and the exercises be such as shall im- 
press upon our youth the patriotic duties of 
American citizenship. In the churches and in 
other places of assembly of the people let there 
be expressions of gratitude to Divine Provi- 
dence for the devout faith of the discoverer, 
and for the Divine care and guidance which 
has directed our history, and so abundantly 
blessed our people." 

Today Columbus Day is recognized as a holi- 
day in some thirty-three of our States, and its 
celebration is fittingly observed by parades and 
school exercises. We can only honor our coun- 



COLUMBUS DAY 231 

try and ourselves by honoring Columbus. We 
are the rich heirs of his dauntless spirit. 

No kingly conqueror, since time began 
The long career of ages, had to man 
A scope so ample given for trade's bold range, 
Or caused of earth's wide stage such rapid, 

mighty change. 



HALLOWE'EN 
(October 31) 



233 



) 



HALLOWE'EN 

Old Time 

Hark! Did you hear that sound in the grass? 

Mayhap a witch or ghost did pass. 

Was that the owl's lone cry? 

Is that the wind among the trees ? 

What voice is whispering in the breeze? 

Are spirits really nigh ? 

New Time 

Hark! Did you hear that sound in the grass? 

Mayhap some mischief-makers pass; 

There's laughter in their cry. 

This is the night for girls and boys, 

For games and pranks and stunts and noise; 

With lanterns gleaming high. 



234 



HALLOWE'EN 

What boy or girl does not delight in Hallow- 
e'en? The very sound of the name is myste- 
rious, but at the same time jolly. Each year 
as it approaches we begin to think of some 
prank that will help to celebrate it; and if we 
are lucky enough to be invited to a Hallowe'en 
party, our cup of joy is full. 

And yet Hallowe'en is not, strictly speaking, 
a holiday. It is only supposed to begin after 
sundown, and one always gets that part of the 
day as a holiday anyhow. But one does get a 
little longer evening because of it, and that is 
some advantage. Our fathers and mothers re- 
member the time when they bobbed for apples 
and told fortunes, and so they extend the hour 
for bedtime a trifle on this night of nights. 

235 



236 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

The story of Hallowe'en is well worth the 
knowing. It dates away back hundreds of 
years. Because the name is shortened from 
All Hallow's Eve, or the Eve of All Saints' 
Day, many people think that it is, or was, a 
church festival ; but this is not true. We know 
that in England, long before the Christian era, 
there was a custom of lighting bonfires on the 
hilltops, on the last evening in October, to 
ward off evil spirits. Among the Celts, an 
ancient people who once lived in Britain, there 
was an important religious order known as 
Druids, the members of which were physicians, 
wonder-workers, and priests. These Druids 
offered sacrifices to the pagan gods, and one 
of the great festivals of the year was that of 
Samhain (**the end of summer'') . The Druids 
sacrificed a horse to the sun-god as a thanks- 
giving for the harvest, and as late as the year 
400 A.D. sacrifices were offered in Britain to 
the moon-god, on what we now call Hallow- 



HALLOWE'EN 237 

e'en. In those days superstition, the fear of 
the unknown, was very common ; and one of the 
widespread beliefs was that on Hallowe'en 
night the spirits of the dead were allowed to 
return to visit their homes and friends. In 
some parts of the British Isles this belief con- 
tinued until comparatively modern times. On 
that night great fires were kindled on the hills, 
and men might have been seen standing in cir- 
cles, waving aloft on pitchforks plaited wisps 
of blazing straw for the purpose of warding 
off the attacks of witches. And they fully be- 
lieved that this was necessary, too! 

For the origin of the name, Hallowe'en, we 
must go back to ancient Rome. In February 
of each year, the Romans formerly held public 
religious rites, known as the Feralia, in honor 
of the dead. In 610 A.D. the Pope ordained 
that the old Roman temple, called the Pan- 
theon, should be converted into a Christian 
church, dedicated to the memory of all the mar- 



238 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

tyrs. The festival was held on May ist, until 
834, when it was moved forward to November 
1st. In Great Britain, naturally enough, it 
became associated with the feast of the Druids 
held at this time, and was called Haligan or All 
Hallows. The night before it was known as 
All Hallows' Eve or Even, which was soon 
shortened to Hallowe'en. 

If there is one fact above all others that the 
history of Hallowe'en amply shows us, it is 
that superstitions die hard. The belief in 
magic, and the days of burning witches have 
happily passed, but there were many popular 
beliefs about Hallowe'en which were held by 
nearly everybody as late as the eighteenth cen- 
tury, and even today some folks believe in 
them. A writer on the subject, John Brand, 
who published a book at the time of our Revo- 
lutionary War, says : "It is a custom at Hallo- 
we'en in Ireland, when the young women would 
know if their lovers are faithful, to put three 



HALLOWE'EN 239 

nuts upon the bars of the grate, naming the 
nuts after the lovers. If a nut cracks or jumps, 
the lover will prove unfaithful ; if it begins to 
blaze or burn, he has a regard for the person 
making the trial. If the nuts named after the 
girl and her lover burn together, they will be 
married." 

The poet of Scotland, Robert Burns, also 
tells us some interesting things in his famous 
poem "Hallowe'en." It is a graphic picture 
of the ceremonies practised on that evening in 
the west of Scotland a hundred and fifty years 
ago. One custom still followed is that of pull- 
ing kail-stocks or stalks of colewort. "The 
young people go out hand-in-hand, blindfolded, 
into the kailyard or garden, and each pulls the 
first stalk which he meets with. Then they 
return to the fireside to inspect their prizes. 
According as the stalk is big or little, so will 
the future wife or husband be of the party by 
whom it is pulled. The quantity of earth stick- 



240 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

ing to the root denotes the amount of dowry 
or fortune ; and the taste of the pitch indicates 
the temper. Finally, the stalks are placed, one 
after another, over the door, and the Christian 
names of the persons who chance to enter the 
house are held in the same succession to indi- 
cate those of the individuals whom the parties 
are to marry." 

Another favorite method of trying fortunes 
was that of the Three Luggies or Three 
Dishes. One dish was filled with clean water, 
another with dirty water, and a third was 
empty. These were ranged on the hearth, 
and the persons blindfolded advanced in turn, 
dipping their fingers into one of them. If they 
dipped into the clean water, they were to marry 
a maiden; if into the foul water, a widow; if 
into the empty dish, the party so dipping was 
destined to remain unmarried. As each person 
took his or her turn, the position of the dishes 
was changed." Burns, in his poem, mentions 



HALLOWE'EN 241 

"auld Uncle John," who became so enraged, 
because he dipped three times into the empty 
dish, that he seized the three luggies and 

"heaved them on the fire 
In wrath that night." 

It is noteworthy that most of the Hallow- 
e'en practices in Scotland had to do with the 
desire to learn of one's future husband or wife. 
Other ways of telling one's fortune were also 
in high favor. Among these were the sowing 
of hemp-seed, wetting a shirt sleeve, and eat- 
ing an apple before a mirror. It is difficult for 
us to realize that these things were done seri- 
ously, but there are instances on record of per- 
sons who, while trying these Hallowe'en spells, 
became so frightened as to injure their health. 
To us the description of these practices can 
only cause amusement, not unmixed, however, 
with surprise that anyone could possibly be- 
lieve in them. Take the wet shirt sleeve, for 



242 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

instance. The practice consisted in wetting a 
shirt sleeve and hanging it up to the fire to dry, 
while its owner lay awake in bed watching it 
till midnight, "when the apparition of the fu- 
ture partner for life will come in and turn the 
sleeve." If on Hallowe'en night a girl ate an 
apple while looking in a mirror, it was believed 
she would see her future husband peeping over 
her shoulder. In Burns's poem the girl is 
afraid to go to the glass alone, and 



Wee Jenny to her granny says : 
"Will ye go wi' me. Granny? 

ni eat the apple at the glass, 
I gat fra Uncle Johnny!" 



But the old lady indignantly refuses, and tells 
her granddaughter that although she may 
"get a sight," she has cause to fear it, for many 
a one "has gotten a fright" and died delirious 
from such an experience. 
Apples and nuts seem always to have had 



HALLOWE'EN 243 

a prominent place in Hallowe'en "stunts." 
Indeed, in the north of England, the night is 
often called "Nutcrack Night." In Cornwall 
it is termed "Allan Night," and it is the custom 
to present the children with a large apple each. 
Hundreds of children would deem it a great 
misfortune if they were to go to bed on Allan 
Night without the time-honored Allan apple 
to hide under their pillow. A curious and un- 
canny Hallowe'en custom prevailed for many 
years in Wales. It is described by a writer of 
the eighteenth century, who says : "Every fam- 
ily about an hour in the night makes a great 
bonfire in the most conspicuous place and when 
the fire is almost extinguished, every one 
throws a white stone into the ashes, having 
first marked it ; then, having said their prayers 
turning round the fire, they go to bed. In the 
morning as soon as they are up, they come to 
search out the stones, and if any one of them 
is found wanting, they have a notion that the 



244 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

person who threw it in will die before he sees 
another Hallowe'en." 

In America we have all the fun of Hallow- 
e'en without losing much sleep over its super- 
stitions. Hallowe'en parties are among our 
most popular gatherings, and range from the 
simplest celebration to the most expensive en- 
tertainment. But the simple and jolly kind are 
best. And of all the sports perhaps the diving 
for apples is the most general. This, by the 
way, is a very old custom, and has afforded 
fun to generations of boys and girls on the 
other side of the Atlantic. An old writer says : 
*'But the grand sport with apples on Hallo- 
we'en is to set them afloat in a tub of water, 
into which the juveniles, by turns, duck their 
heads with the view of catching an apple. 
Great fun goes on in watching the attempts of 
the youngster in the pursuit of the swimming 
fruit, which wriggles from side to side of the 
tub, and evades all attempts to capture it. The 




HALLOWE'EN 



HALLOWE^EN 245 

apples provided with stalks are generally 
caught first, and then comes the tug of war to 
win those that have none. Some competitors 
will deftly suck up the apple, if a small one, 
into their mouths. Others plunge manfully 
overhead in pursuit of the particular apple, 
and, having forced it to the bottom of the tubs, 
seize it firmly with their teeth, and emerge, 
dripping and triumphant, with their prize.'* 

Where the tub of water is not handy, or the 
careful mothers wish to avoid getting every- 
body's clothes wet, the apples are hung up on 
short strings which in turn are tied to a longer 
string stretching across the room. The game 
is then to see which boy or girl can get the first 
bite out of the swinging fruit. Of course, the 
hands cannot be used, but are kept behind the 
back. As the apples swing in every direction 
from their strings, one's nose or mouth is liable 
to be smartly rapped. 

Another scheme is to tie doughnuts, instead 



246 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

of apples to the string. Then the contestants 
have to eat the entire prize without pulling it 
off the string. Still another game that is 
"stacks of fun" is to hide silver dimes or quar- 
ters in a pan of flour, from which the com- 
petitors have to pick them up with their 
mouths. Before they have finished, the faces 
of the youngsters are whiter than the locks of 
the oldest onlookers. 

Many such games have been devised and, as 
said before, most of them nowadays are in the 
nature of pranks. Few deal with the telling of 
fortunes. But Hallowe'en night is a fine time 
to tell ghost stories. 

In some of the Eastern States the children 
like to dress up in fantastic costumes and go 
calling on their friends. They carry Jack-o*- 
Lanterns, sometimes paper ones, sometimes 
carved out of real pumpkins, or any sort 
of fancy lantern. In the country where 
pumpkins are abundant, only the carved 



HALLOWE'EN 247 

out kind is acceptable. This is the night, 
too, when the spirit of mischief is abroad. 
Front gates are taken off their hinges; 
wagon wheels are hung up in trees ; and tick- 
tacks frighten the nervous persons who remain 
indoors. A tick-tack, be it known, is a very- 
simple contrivance, usually a small stone tied 
to one end of a string, while the other end is 
fastened to a window sash. A long string is 
then tied to the short one, and as the party in 
ambush pulls it, a sharp rapping on the win- 
dow-pane results. 

But, after all, the pumpkin lantern parade 
and the bonfire are the great outdoor events 
of the night. The fallen leaves have been care- 
fully collected into a prodigious heap around 
an empty box. The fire is lighted, the torches 
are kindled, and the "procession" gives the boys 
and girls a healthy appetite for the "eats,** 
without which no Hallowe'en party would be 
complete. In they troop to a supper table that 



248 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

presents a grotesque realism which would have 
made old Robert Burns stare. Brownies, 
witches, bats, black cats, toads, snakes, and 
spiders are to be seen, by the weird light of lit- 
tle Jack-o*-Lanterns or witch candles — but the 
shrieks of delight show that no one is fright- 
ened; for they are all made out of paper or 
papier mache. Indeed, a large business is car- 
ried on each year in the manufacture and sale 
of these novelties ; but where they cannot read- 
ily be bought, a little crepe paper and some in- 
genuity can transform any room into a grotto 
where may be held the high revels of Hallow- 



e'en. 



ALL SAINTS' DAY 
(November i) 



249 



OVER THE RIVER 
Over the river they beckon to me- 



Loved ones who've crossed to the further 

side; 
The gleam of their snowy robes I see, 

But their voices are drowned in the rushing 

tide. 

For none return from those quiet shores, 
Who cross with the boatman cold and pale; 

We hear the dip of the golden oars, 
And catch a glimpse of the snowy sail. 

And lo! they have passed from our yearning 
hearts, 

They cross the stream and are gone for aye ; 
We may not sunder the veil apart 

That hides from our vision the gates of day. 



250 



ALL SAINTS' DAY 

Special days set apart in memory of the 
dead are common to all lands. The custom is 
almost as old as mankind. In our own country 
we have such a special day in Memorial Day, 
when we do honor to the memory of our sol- 
dier dead. 

But many people like another day also, for 
the remembrance of friends or relatives; and 
so in several churches such a day is celebrated. 
All Saints' Day, as it is called, is one of the 
holy days of our Protestant Episcopal Church, 
as well as the Church of England, the Roman 
Catholic Church, and the Greek Church. It 
was formerly called All Hallows Day, and Hal- 
lowmass. The night before it is called Hallow- 
e'en, as we have just seen in our Hallowe'en 

251 



252 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

story. All Saints' Day was first kept on the 
first of November in the year 834, but before 
that a similar festival had been held on differ- 
ent dates. Some sixteen hundred years ago, 
in what was then known as the Eastern 
Church, the Sunday after Whitsuntide was 
called All Saints' Sunday. 

This, however, is not the same as All Souls* 
Day, a festival of the Roman Catholic Church, 
which occurs on November 2. Members of 
this church believe that at death the soul enters 
Purgatory ; and in ancient times it was custom- 
ary for criers, dressed in black, to parade the 
streets, ringing a bell of mournful sound and 
calling on all good Christians to remember the 
poor souls in Purgatory and join in prayer for 
their relief. 

"In Southern Italy," says Walsh, "notably in 
Salerno, there was another ancient custom, 
which was put an end to in the fifteenth cen- 
tury because it was thought to savor of pagan- 



ALL SAINTS' DAY 253 

ism. Every family used to spread a table 
abundantly for the regalement of the souls of 
its dead members on their way from Purga- 
tory. All then spent the day in church, leaving 
the house open, and if any of the food remained 
on the table when they came back it was an ill- 
omen. Curiously enough, large numbers of 
thieves used to resort to the city at this time, 
and there was seldom any food left to presage 
evil." 

In France, All Souls' Day is called the Jour 
des Morts, or "Day of the Dead/' and is made 
the occasion of a widespread and beautiful ob- 
servance. "For two or three weeks before 
the day arrives," writes Walsh, "the shop 
windows and the news-venders' kiosks are 
laden with wreaths and garlands of immortel- 
les, some in their natural color, some dyed 
blue, pink, or purple. On All Saints' the peo- 
ple stream to the cemeteries. Thousands of 
people, thousands of wreaths. The cemeteries 



254 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

are one mass of brilliant color, of moving 
throngs, for not even the remotest corner of 
the potter's field is neglected. Above the dust 
of the pauper, as well as the prince, is left 
some token of remembrance. Pains are taken 
that no graves of friends and relatives are neg- 
lected, lest their spirits should have their feel- 
ings hurt during their visit, by perceiving this 
neglect. The children, especially, are encour- 
aged to delight in the thought of pleasing the 
little dead brother, sister, or friend by making 
the tiny mounds that mark their resting-places 
gay and bright-looking." 

All Saints' Day is a sort of prelude to All 
Souls' Day in France; it is looked upon as we 
look upon Christmas Eve as a prelude to 
Christmas Day. This is also true of Italy. 
But in other European countries the decora- 
ting of graves begins on All Saints' Day, either 
because it is looked upon as the Eve of All 
Souls', or from the pious and complimentary 



ALL SAINTS' DAY 255 

hope that the dead in whom the celebrant is in- 
terested may have already passed out of the 
penitential flames of Purgatory into the com- 
pany of the blessed. In a Catholic Alpine vil- 
lage, as soon as the mass has been heard on 
All Saints' Day, the women of the family busy 
themselves with weaving wreaths of ever- 
greens, into which any flowers that are still 
hardy enough to blossom are eagerly worked. 
In the afternoon these are carried to the 
churchyard and laid upon the graves with al- 
most silent reverence; and in the evening a 
lamp is placed at the foot of the last resting- 
place of every departed friend. At such a 
time the cemetery is a strange sight, with the 
garlands, the lights, and the groups of mourn- 
ers kneeling, often in the snow. 

All Saints' Day was introduced into the 
church calendar owing to the impossibility of 
having a separate day for each saint, and it is 
really a festival in honor of all the martyrs. 



2S6 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

or those who have died for the church ; while 
All Souls' Day is set apart for "those who, 
while they have not suffered death for the 
church, yet have died as believers." Nowa- 
days, in the minds of most persons, there is the 
same thought for both days,— a memorial for 
dear ones who have passed from earth into the 
great hereafter. As Longfellow says, in his 
beautiful poem, "Resignation," 



There is no flock, however watched and tended, 

But one dead lamb is there; 
There is no fireside, howsoever defended, 

But has one vacant chair. 



There is another and still finer thought be- 
hind our celebration to All Saints' Day — and 
that is, the thought of meeting our friends 
again. Death is robbed of its sting, if we think 
of it only as a parting for a little while. Car- 
lyle has said : 



ALL SAINTS' DAY 257 

It is an old belief that on some solemn shore, 
Beyond the sphere of grief, dear friends shall 

meet once more, 
Beyond the sphere of time, and death and its 

control, 
Serene in changeless prime of body and of soul. 
This hope we still would keep, this faith we'll 

not forego, 
Unending be the sleep, if not to waken so. 

In our country very little attention is paid 
to All Saints' Day, beyond the church observ- 
ances. In only one State, Louisiana, is it made 
a legal holiday ; and this is probably due to the 
fact that many French settled in that State. 
We have already noticed how general is the 
observance in France. In other States days of 
mourning or remembrance are left to each fam- 
ily group. Our Memorial Day, in the Spring, 
may be regarded as our one national Day of 
All Saints. 



ELECTION DAY 

(First Tuesday after First Monday in No- 
vember) 



259 



THE BALLOT 

As noiseless fall those printed slips 

As fall the silent dews of night, 
Yet never words from human lips 

Had greater majesty and might. 
They are the fiat and the will 

Of patriots who love their land, 
Who aim their duty to fulfil, 

And on that firmly take their stand. 

Millions on millions through the land 

Fall noiseless as the rain and snow, 
A puff of wind may from the hand 

Release and whirl it to and fro. 
Administrations rise and fall, 

And parties rise or cease to be, 
Obedient to the ballot's call, 

The weapon of a people free. 

William G. Haeselbarth. 



260 



ELECTION DAY 

In this free land of America we are so used 
to electing our own heads of government and 
deciding all of our great questions by "the 
voice of the people," that we are often in dan- 
ger of forgetting how precious is this privilege. 
We are, indeed, wonderfully favored in having 
the right to decide questions by the vote. In 
this simple thing we have fallen heir to the 
finest fruits of all the ages, and have been given 
what men have struggled for and dreamed 
about, for thousands of years. 

If you will read the story of ancient na- 
tions, you will notice that, almost always, they 
were governed by kings — men who were born 
into power and lorded it over the people with- 
out giving them any voice in the matter. This 

261 



262 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

was so general that for centuries they accepted 
it as a matter of course; the common folks 
were not supposed to have brains enough to 
manage their own affairs ; and the princes saw 
to it that they didn't have the power. Some- 
times there would be revolts and the people 
would try to set up their own government, 
but such attempts were usually short-lived. 
Greece was perhaps the first of these old na- 
tions to try what we call democracy, and the 
historian Herodotus gives us an interesting 
account of this experiment — for it was noth- 
ing more ; the world at large was not ready for 
it. 

One old method of voting among the Greeks 
was by dropping pebbles or shells into a closed 
box. If a magistrate was unpopular and 
enough shells were dropped in to this effect, 
he was sent into exile, or "ostracized." We 
still use this old word in a broader sense, and 
it comes from the Greek word meaning a shell. 



ELECTION DAY 263 

As the centuries went by and the common 
people became more versed in the ways of gov- 
ernment, they rebelled more and more at the 
notion of the "divine right of kings." They 
felt that, since they were the ones most directly 
concerned, their own voice should have more 
weight than that of their rulers. In England 
this idea came to a head when, in the thirteenth 
century. King John was compelled to sign the 
Magna Charta, or Great Charter, which guar- 
anteed certain liberties to the masses. This 
paper became the foundation of a great deal of 
English law; and from this time on, the Eng- 
lish people took over more and more affairs 
into their own hands until today they have a 
government which, while headed by a king, 
is really one of the most democratic of all the 
nations. 

In France they won freedom much more 
painfully. Their long succession of kings and 
nobles had lived extravagant lives, so that the 



264 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

common people became very poor and down- 
trodden. At last there was a reaction, and the 
bloody French Revolution broke out, a little 
over a hundred years ago, which was to rage 
for several years, and give way for a time to 
an empire, before the French Republic arose 
from the ruins. 

It is said by historians, that the French Rev- 
olution was caused, or at least hastened, by the 
success of our own Revolution, a few years 
before. The United States was the first of 
modern republics and is still the greatest, re- 
maining an example to the whole world. The 
French paid a graceful tribute to this fact when 
they gave us the great statue now holding aloft 
its torch in the New York harbor of "Liberty 
Enlightening the World." 

Of recent years our example of self-govern- 
ment has been followed by one nation after an- 
other, until there are far more republics than 
other forms. One result of the great World 



ELECTION DAY 265 

War was to cause Russia, one of the most op- 
pressed of countries, to overthrow its Czar. 

The story of how our own nation was born 
is familiar to us all, but is worth recalling es- 
pecially to mind, on Election Day. The British 
Government said that it had the right to tax 
us, without allowing us in return a voice in its 
law-making body; and so ''taxation without 
representation" became our call to arms. As 
Mr. William J. Bryan has said : 

"The Declaration of Independence set before 
the world four great truths which were de- 
clared to be self-evident ; first, that all men are 
created equal; second, that they are endowed 
with inalienable rights, among which are life, 
liberty and the pursuit of happiness ; third, that 
governments are instituted among men to se- 
cure these rights; fourth, that governments 
derive their just powers from the consent of 
the governed. Upon these four pillars, quar- 
ried from the mountain of eternal truth, all 



266 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

free government must forever rest. Then fol- 
lowed the War of the Revolution, with its sac- 
rifices and its sacred memories, with its trials 
and its triumphs, establishing a government 
dedicated to liberty." 

After we had won our freedom through the 
Revolution the next step was to prepare a plan 
of self-government. This was done by means 
of our Constitution drawn up by a special con- 
vention in 1787. It provided a plan by which 
our affairs should be administered under three 
heads: (i) the Legislative, or Law-making 
Department, consisting of a Congress of two 
bodies, the Senate and the House of Repre- 
sentatives; (2) the Executive, or Law-execut- 
ing, Department, consisting of a President, 
Vice-President, and other civil officers; and 
(3) a Judicial, or Law-interpreting, Depart- 
ment, headed by a Supreme Court and having 
other courts and judges. 

Of all the many officers thus created, some 



ELECTION DAY 267 

are appointed, while others are elected. The 
President and Vice-President are elected, as 
well as the members of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. Besides these, each State, County, 
and Town have their own officers who are to be 
elected. And so the "first Tuesday after the 
first Monday in November" is set apart as gen- 
eral Election Day. The reason it is so desig- 
nated is to prevent the election from falling on 
the very first day of the month. 

The election for President is held every four 
years, and for Representatives every two years. 
Governors in various States hold terms of of- 
*fice of dififerent lengths, some being only one 
year. For this reason every November wit- 
nesses Election Day somewhere in the United 
States, and often a special election is held at 
other times ; but naturally the Presidential elec- 
tions are the greatest of all 

Because they come so frequently we are 
thoroughly used to the idea of Election Day, 



268 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

and perhaps are inclined to grow careless in 
the exercise of our privileges. Every citizen 
has a solemn duty to perform, to see to it that 
the very best man possible is chosen for each 
office. 

The method of voting, while it sounds com- 
plicated, is really very simple. First is held a 
registration day, at which time every grown 
person entitled to vote must register, or sign 
his name and address. This is for the purpose 
of checking up the lists. Then on Election Day 
proper the voter goes to the voting office where 
he has been registered and is there given a bal- 
lot, or vote, which is a long slip of paper show- 
ing the candidates for each office. He makes 
his choice, and the ballot is folded and dropped 
through a slit into a large box, just as one 
would drop a penny into a bank. At the close 
of the day the votes are counted, and the men 
receiving the largest number are declared 
elected. 



ELECTION DAY 269 

Election Night, great crowds gather before 
the bulletin boards to watch the returns come 
in from all over the country. It is a time of 
noise and cheering and good humor. The vic- 
torious side chaffs the vanquished, but the 
crowd takes it good-naturedly and accepts the 
verdict in a "sporting" spirit. This, in fact, 
is one of the finest possible tests of the strength 
of our form of government. No matter how 
keen the rivalry before election, or how bitter 
the feeling between parties and issues, once the 
voting is over, people return calmly to their 
accustomed work, and within a week one would 
hardly know that there had been an election 
at all. 

When you are given the right to vote, and 
march up to the ballot-box for the first time, do 
not accept this gift lightly or carelessly. For, 
as a writer has well said : "It is a grand thing, 
something which involves profound doctrines 
of right, something which has cost ages of ef- 



270 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

fort and sacrifice, — it is a grand thing that 
here, at last, each voter has just the weight of 
one man; no more, or less; and the weakest, 
by virtue of his recognized manhood, is as 
strong as the mightiest. And consider, for a 
moment, what it is to cast a vote. It is the 
token of inestimable privileges, and involves 
the responsibilities of an hereditary trust. It 
has passed your hands as a right, reaped from 
fields of suffering and blood. The grandeur of 
history is represented in your act. Men have 
wrought with pen and tongue, and pined in 
dungeons, and died on scaffolds, that you might 
obtain this symbol of freedom, and enjoy this 
consciousness of a sacred individuality. To 
the ballot have been transmitted, as it were, the 
dignity of the scepter and the potency of the 
sword." 



THANKSGIVING 

(Fourth Thursday in November) 



271 



SONG FOR THANKSGIVING 

Come, ye thankful people, come. 
Raise the song of Harvest-home! 
All is safely gathered in, 
Ere the winter storms begin; 
God, our Maker, doth provide 
For our wants to be supplied; 
Come to God's own temple, come; 
Raise the song of Harvest-home! 

Henry Alford. 



272 



THANKSGIVING 

One autumn day in New England, about 
three hundred years ago, four men might have 
been seen starting out on a hunting expedition. 
This was no uncommon sight, but the present 
was no ordinary day's sport; it was a special 
mission sent out by the Governor, to obtain 
wild game for a feast of Thanksgiving. The 
first harvest of their little colony had been 
gathered in, and in honor of the occasion they 
must procure turkeys and other wild fowl to 
grace their board, so that they "might after a 
more special manner rejoice together." As 
these sturdy men wandered about over the 
snow, and as, the next day, their busy wives 
and daughters cooked the goodly supply of 
game which they brought in, they little dreamed 

273 



274 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

that they were setting the fashion for a glori- 
ous succession of Thanksgiving Days, in a far- 
off time when their land had grown great and 
prosperous. 

The story of the events leading up to that 
first day of thanks is worth repeating. The 
Pilgrims had come across the sea to form a new 
home in the wilderness, because of religious 
persecution in the home land. For some 
strange reason they had made the voyage at the 
approach of winter while "the breaking waves 
dashed high;" and they landed at Plymouth 
Rock, in what was later Massachusetts, De- 
cember 21, 1620. There were one hundred 
and two in the little company, when the May- 
flower cast anchor off Cape Cod, and their voy- 
age had taken ten times as long as our modern 
ships require. They now faced a bleak coast, 
with no shelter of any sort against the coming 
storms, except such as they could hastily build. 
While the women and children remained on 



THANKSGIVING 275 

shipboard, the men built a community house. 
During that first hard, heroic year on the 
edge of the ocean, backed by a wilderness in 
which lived red men and wild beasts, their foot- 
hold was, indeed, uncertain. Nearly half of 
the little company perished during the winter; 
but when springtime came the rest set them- 
selves resolutely to work to clear the land. 
They made friends with the Indians who 
taught them how to plant corn and to use fish 
for fertilizing the soil. They also planted bar- 
ley and peas, and found an abundance of wild 
fruits and berries ; so that when the next winter 
drew near, rounding out their first year of life 
in the New World, the Pilgrims found them- 
selves in far better circumstances. A plenteous 
harvest had been gathered in; they had built 
themselves substantial houses ; they had learned 
how to adapt themselves to the new manner of 
living; and so they faced the future with lighter 
hearts. The whole countryside was aglow with 



276 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

its rich autumn tints ; and as they looked across 
their rich fields to the wild flowers and russet 
foliage of the forest, which, only a few short 
months before, had seemed so bleak and forbid- 
ding, a spirit of gratitude filled their hearts. 
They resolved to prepare a great feast of 
Thanksgiving, and invite to it their Indian 
friends who had helped to make all this pos- 
sible. 

A quaint account of the occasion may be still 
read in a letter by Edward Winslow, one of 
the company and later its Governor, dated De- 
cember II, 1 62 1. He wrote to a friend in Eng- 
land as follows : 

"You shall understand that, in the little time 
that a few of us have been here, we have built 
seven dwelling-houses and four for the use of 
the plantation and have made preparations for 
divers others. We set the last spring some 
twenty acres of Indian corn and sowed some 
six acres of barley and peas, and, according to 



THANKSGIVING 277 

the manner of the Indians, we manured our 
ground with herrings or rather shads, which 
we have in great abundance, and take with 
great ease at our doors. 

"Our corn did prove well; and, God be 
praised, we have a good increase of Indian 
corn, and our barley indifferent good, but our 
peas not worth the gathering, for we feared 
they were too late down. They came up very 
well and blossomed ; but the sun parched them 
in the blossom. 

"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor 
sent four men on fowling, that so we might 
after a special manner, rejoice together after 
we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They 
four in one day killed as many fowl as, with a 
little help beside, served the company almost a 
week, at which time, amongst other recreations, 
we exercised our arms, many of the Indians 
coming amongst us, and among the rest their 
greatest king, Massasoit, with some ninety men, 



278 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

whom for three days we entertained and 
feasted ; and they went out and killed five deer, 
which they brought to the plantation, and be- 
stowed on our governor, and on the captain 
and the others. 

"And, altho it is not always so plentiful 
as it was at this time with us, yet by the good- 
ness of God, we are so far from want, that we 
wish you partakers of our plenty." 

What a dinner it must have been, and what 
a company to eat it ! There sat the old Indian 
king Massasoit, at the head of the board, with 
Governor Bradford, while down the long table 
on each side sat the ninety braves and their 
white hosts, headed by Captain Standish. 
Back and forth from the kitchen went Priscilla 
and the other girls busily keeping the plates 
filled. Never was seen such a feast in the New 
World. There were wild turkeys, geese, ducks, 
and water fowl, besides codfish, clams, and 
oysters ; and there were barley loaves, and corn- 



THANKSGIVING 279 

bread, salad, fruits, and pastries of many kinds. 
And for fear there would not be enough — as 
well he might after three such days ! — the old 
king sent out five of his braves on a still longer 
hunting trip, and they brought back five deer. 
Some was barbecued, Indian fashion, but of 
the rest there were savory venisons, stews, 
roasts and steaks. Between "eats" they held 
games and contests between Indians and colo- 
nists. It was a never-to-be-forgotten time in 
their history. 

If we were spinning merely a tale of fancy, 
how fine it would be to say that this day of 
feasting and friendship so well begun has con- 
tinued as an annual event without stop or hin- 
drance until our own day ! — that harvests have 
always been bountiful, and that we have been 
at peace with red men and white men alike! 
But this is not the way our true story runs. 
Many hard years were in store for the settlers 
— years when their crops failed them and their 



28o THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

enemies lay in wait — and at such times the 
people had no heart for feasting. However, 
we read that, in 163 1, a Thanksgiving was held 
at Boston over the arrival of a much-needed 
ship with provisions; and the next year the 
Governor of Massachusetts appointed a day of 
thanks, and asked the head of the Plymouth 
Colony to join in its observance. After that, 
from time to time, local celebrations were held ; 
but it was not until the Revolutionary War, to- 
ward the end of the next century, that a na- 
tional Thanksgiving Day was ordered by Con- 
gress. Washington later issued the first Presi- 
dential proclamation setting aside the day, but 
still its observance was limited to the Northern 
States. 

In the South it was almost unknown as late 
as the year 1855, when the Governor of Vir- 
ginia sent a message to the State Legislature 
urging recognition of the holiday. Much op- 
position was aroused, many persons saying that 



THANKSGIVING 281 

it was a relic of Puritan bigotry. But two 
years later the next Governor of that State is- 
sued a proclamation appointing the day, and 
it was celebrated with true Southern hospital- 
ity. The next year eight other Southern States 
had fallen in line ; but the outbreak of the Civil 
War put a temporary stop to it. Finally, in 
1864, President Lincoln issued a proclamation 
setting aside the fourth Thursday in Novem- 
ber for a national Day of Thanksgiving, with 
a view to making this date an annual holiday 
in every State. Every President since then has 
followed his lead, and the fourth Thursday in 
November has become the accepted day all over 
the land; although, each year, a special mes- 
sage must be issued to this effect. 

However, the idea of a special day of thanks 
and feasting by no means belongs to America. 
Like many another good idea back of our na- 
tional holidays, the germ of this one is found 
in olden times. When the Children of Israel 



282 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

were in the land of the Canaanites, we read 
(in the Book of Judges) that the Canaanites 
"went out in the field, and gathered their vine- 
yards, and trod the grapes and held festival, 
and went into the house of their God, and did 
eat and drink." 

The Israelites may have copied the custom 
from them, for later they instituted the Feast 
of Tabernacles, at which time they dwelt in 
booths or tents, in memory of their forty years 
of wandering, and gave thanks to God for their 
harvests. Moses gave these directions for the 
holiday (found in Deuteronomy) : 

"Thou shalt keep the feast of tabernacles 
seven days, after that thou hast gathered in 
from thy threshing-floor and from thy wine- 
press ; and thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, 
and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man- 
servant and thy maidservant, and the Levite, 
and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the 
widow, that are within thy gates. Seven days 



THANKSGIVING 283 

shalt thou keep a feast unto the Lord thy 
God . . . because the Lord thy God shall bless 
thee in all thine increase, and in all the work 
of thine hands, and thou shalt be altogether 
joyful/* 

This custom of making thanksgiving after 
harvest became the principal festival of the 
Jewish year. In the book of Nehemiah the 
Lord commanded, "Go forth unto the mount, 
and fetch olive branches, and branches of wild 
olive and myrtle branches, and palm branches, 
and branches of thick trees, to make 
booths. ... So the people went forth and 
brought them, and made themselves booths, 
every one upon the roof of his house, and in 
their courts, and in the courts of the house of 
God, and in the broad place of the water 
gate. . . . And there was very great glad- 



ness." 



In ancient Greece also there was a harvest 
festival called the Thesmophoria, which was 



284 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

something like the Jewish Feast of Taber- 
nacles. It was the feast of Demeter, goddess 
of the soil and of harvests, and was celebrated 
in Athens, in November, by housewives only. 
Two noblewomen were chosen to perform the 
sacred rites, and to prepare the feast, which, 
as you see, suggests our Thanksgiving dinner. 
On the first day of the feast, amid great rejoic- 
ing, the women went in a gaily bedecked pro- 
cession to the cliff of Colias where stood the 
temple of Demeter, and celebrated their 
Thanksgiving for three days. This was fol- 
lowed by a festival for three days in Athens, 
sad at first, but generally becoming a riot of 
mirth and dancing. A cow and a sow were of- 
fered to the goddess, besides fruit and honey- 
combs. The symbols of the fruitful goddess 
were poppies, corn, fruit, and a pig. 

The Romans worshipped a goddess of the 
harvest under the name of Ceres. Her festi- 
val, which occurred yearly on October 4th, was 



THANKSGIVING 285 

called the Cerelia. We still have this word in 
our "cereals'' or grains. The holiday began 
with a fast among the common people who of- 
fered a sow and the first of the harvest to the 
goddess. Then there were fantastic parades 
in the fields and rustic sports. The ceremonies 
ended with the usual feast of Thanksgiving. 

In early England they celebrated "Harvest 
Home," and it was said to be dated back to 
the times of the Saxons. There were many 
curious customs during the harvest time, such 
as dressing up in a corn sheaves, and having 
a parade in honor of the last wagons brought 
in from the fields. An old song runs : 

Harvest home ! harvest home ! 
We've ploughed, we've sowed, 
We've reaped, we've mowed. 
We've brought home every load. 
Hip, hip, hip, harvest home ! 

Clarke in his "Travels," written a hundred 
years ago, gives this account of a harvest-home 



286 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

festival in Cambridge : "At a Hawkie, as it is 
called, or Harvest-Home, I have seen a clown 
dressed in woman's clothes, having his face 
painted, his head decorated with ears of corn, 
and bearing about with him other emblems of 
Ceres, carried in a wagon, with great pomp and 
loud shouts, through the streets, the horses be- 
ing covered with white sheets ; and, when I in- 
quired the meaning of the ceremony, was an- 
swered by the people that 'they were drawing 
the Harvest Queen.' " 

Coming from such English stock, it was but 
natural that the early settlers in our own land 
should think of celebrating the Harvest Home. 
It was, so to speak, in their blood. 

Today we celebrate it in much the same spirit 
as did the Pilgrim Fathers. Church services 
are held for those who wish to keep in 
touch with the religious spirit of the day; but 
with the large majority of us it is peculiarly 
a home festival — the time when we round up 




THANKSGIVING PIES 



THANKSGIVING 287 

all the stragglers and bring them together again 
in the home circle — and when the good father 
and mother can help the plates again of each 
one of their grown-up boys and girls, and of 
their boys and girls in turn, about the ever- 
increasing board. 

And Thanksgiving comes at just the very 
best time for a feast. The fat old gobbler has 
reached his perfection; the pumpkins smile a 
golden smile; the harvest is in; and the cider 
sparkles in the mill. At such a time as this we 
can well give thanks, 



For the hay and the corn and wheat that is 
reaped, 

For the labor well done, and the barns that are 
heaped. 

For the sun and the dew and the sweet honey- 
comb. 

For the rose and the song, and the harvest 

brought home 

Thanksgiving ! Thanksgiving ! 



288 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

For the homes that with purest affection are 

blest, 
For the season of plenty and well-deserved rest, 
For our country extending from sea unto sea. 
The land that is known as the "Land of the 

Free" 

Thanksgiving ! Thanksgiving ! 



CHRISTMAS 
(December 25) 



289 



GOD REST YOU 

God rest you, merry gentlemen, 

Let nothing you dismay, 
For Jesus Christ our Saviour 

Was born upon this day, 
To save us all from Satan's power 

When we were gone astray. 
O tidings of comfort and joy, 

For Jesus Christ our Saviour 
Was born on Christmas day. 

Old English Carol. 



290 



CHRISTMAS 

The hearts of all mankind are turned 

Toward lowly Bethlehem; 
For in the East the wondrous star that burned 

In days of old 

Still beckons them. 

If all our holidays except one had to be 
given up, and we had only one in the whole 
year, which one, do you suppose, would we vote 
to keep? It is not hard to answer that ques- 
tion, for if such a vote were put, we would hear 
the answer like a mighty chorus, the grown 
folks' voices mingling with those of the chil- 
dren, as from a single throat — Christmas! 

Last of all the holidays in the year, it holds 
first place in our hearts. And this is as it 
should be, for it represents the greatest event 

291 



292 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

in our history; and that is why it is the most 
widely celebrated festival in all the world. 

It is not at all certain that the twenty-fifth 
of December is the actual date of the birth of 
Jesus. There is no historic record of the day, 
but historians and astronomers have figured 
out that it must have been about the time of the 
winter solstice — that is, when the days are the 
shortest and the sun is farthest away from the 
earth. This season of the year also was a 
period of great feasting on the part of the 
ancient Romans. The sun was about to return 
to them — hence their joy. Their festival was 
called the Saturnalia. When the Christian 
faith began to spread, it was thought best to 
celebrate Christmas at this same time, and thus 
do away with the heathen festival. Naturally 
the Roman emperors objected at first, and 
many Christians were persecuted and put to 
death for its observance. 

In the year 303, the Emperor Diocletian or- 



CHRISTMAS 293 

dered the churches to be burned while Christ- 
mas was being celebrated, and about twenty 
thousand Christians perished. But with the 
recognition of the new faith by the Emperor 
Constantine, the celebration of Christmas be- 
came an established custom. 

The word Christmas means "mass of 
Christ." That it has been celebrated as a fes- 
tival of the birth of Christ ever since the first 
century is shown by writings upon the walls of 
the early Christian tombs. 

Northern people had a similar festival in 
honor of the God Thor, called Yule. Many of 
the pagan customs which attended the Roman 
Saturnalia and the feast of Yule have survived 
in the traditions which surround our modern 
observance of Christmas. The Yule log, for 
instance, dates back to the time of the Saxons 
and Goths, who burned such a log at their fes- 
tival of the winter solstice. On Christmas eve 
in old English homes, the yule log or clog, 



294 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

sometimes the root of a tree, was brought into 
the house with great ceremony and lighted with 
a bit of tinder carefully saved from the fire of 
the preceding year. Even the cottages had 
their yule-log and by its cheerful blaze the 
whole room was lighted. This log was sup- 
posed to burn all night, and if it went out it was 
a sign of ill-luck. An old song runs: 

Come, bring with a noise. 
My merrie, merrie boyes. 
The Christmas log to the firing. 

The yule log is still burnt in many farm- 
houses of Northern England, and there are 
many superstitions current among the peas- 
antry about it. If, while it is afire, a squint- 
eyed or a bare-footed person comes into the 
house, it is considered an ill-omen. A stick 
charred from the yule log placed under the bed 
is thought to keep lightning from striking the 
house. 

The origin of the Christmas tree is also 



CHRISTMAS 295 

marked by legends and stories of the past. One 
beautiful legend is that St. Boniface converted 
the German tribes from their worship of Thor 
to Christianity, and their "Thunder Oak/* 
under which human sacrifices were made, was 
supplanted by another tree dedicated to love 
and good deeds. 

"Here," said the apostle, as his eyes fell on 
a young fir-tree standing straight and green, 
with its top pointing toward the stars, amid the 
divided ruins of the fallen oak, "here is the liv- 
ing tree, with no stain of blood upon it, that 
shall be the sign of your new worship. See how 
it points to the sky. Let us call it the tree of 
the Christ-child. Take it up and carry it to 
the chieftain's hall. You shall go no more into 
the forests to keep your feasts with secret rites 
of shame, you shall keep them at home, with 
laughter and love. The Thunder Oak has 
fallen, and I think the day is coming when 
there shall not be a home in all the world where 



296 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

the children are not gathered around the green 
fir-tree to rejoice in the birthright of Christ." 

Many lands claim to have started the custom 
of the lighted Christmas tree. Its use has long 
been common in Germany. A pathetic story is 
told of some German soldiers who, at Christ- 
mas time, gathered branches of trees, and, 
hanging dry bread upon them, led their horses 
up to the feast that they might enjoy Christ- 
mas in the true fashion of the Fatherland. 

One story of the origin of the lighted Christ- 
mas tree is that Martin Luther, on his way 
home on Christmas eve, was filled with wonder 
at the beauty of the Christmas stars, and tried 
to describe the scene to his wife. Utterly un- 
able to express his emotions in words, he went 
out and brought in a fir-tree, lighted small can- 
dles, and placed them upon the branches as a 
symbol. "This,'' he said, "is like the Christ- 
mas sky, it is a Christmas tree." There are 
some old prints still preserved, which show 



CHRISTMAS 297 

Luther seated at a table upon which is a Christ- 
mas tree. 

Old Santa Claus, without whom no Christ- 
mas would be complete, is also a subject of tra- 
ditions running back hundreds of years, almost 
to the very beginning of the Christian era. 
The name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, who 
is said to have been Nicholas Archbishop of 
Myra, a father of the Church in the fourth 
century. But from this small point of fact the 
good saint has been a great wanderer. He first 
appears in the Northland as a grim figure rid- 
ing upon a white horse, resembling our modern 
fancy of the image of Death. He was followed 
about, upon Christmas eve, by the souls of lit- 
tle children, some said, the spirits of the inno- 
cents slain at Bethlehem by the order of Herod. 
So, at Yule-tide children placed their wooden 
shoes full of oats outside the door, for the great 
white horse, and, in the morning, if they were 



298 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

good children, the oats were gone and the shoes 
filled with apples and nuts. 

Later he was seen in Germany as a tall, thin 
fellow wearing a peaked hat ; his deep pockets 
being full of sugar plums for the children. It 
was not until after he came over the sea to 
America that he became the fat, round, beam- 
ing elf who has become so famiHar, and was 
first made immortal in "The Night before 
Christmas." Evidently our climate has agreed 
with him, although he doubtless scrambled 
down the chimneys a lot more easily in his 
younger days when he was slim. 

Santa's chief mission today is to fill the stock- 
ings which await his coming at the fire-place. 
The custom of hanging up stockings is likewise 
very old. We have seen how the European 
children used to leave their shoes outside the 
door, filled with oats for the Saint's horse. In 
some countries the shoes are hung up, and the 
little Spanish maiden hides her slippers in the 



CHRISTMAS 299 

bushes for good Saint Nick. Long ago the 
children hung up their stockings on Saint Nich- 
olas' Eve, which was on December 6. A prob- 
able early origin of the custom of hanging up 
stockings comes from a popular belief among 
girls of the Old World that Saint Nicholas 
would provide them with dowries, or marriage 
portions. There is an old story that he threw 
three purses of gold into the home of a man too 
poor to provide dowries for his three daughters. 
In some places the girls would hang long, stock- 
ing-shaped purses at their doors, as a still 
stronger hint to the Saint. After a time they 
ceased to do this on Saint Nicholas' Eve, and 
the stocking-hanging was made a part of our 
observance of Christmas. 

Of course there is a wealth of folk tales 
about so popular a holiday. It is said that in 
the country round about Bethlehem a strange 
quiet prevailed on the night before the birth of 
Jesus. The birds were still, and even the wind 



300 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

was hushed ; while wolves and other beasts of 
prey left the flocks in peace. The poet, Milton, 
in his "Ode to the Nativity," sings: 

Peaceful was the night 
Wherein the Prince of Light 
His reign of peace upon the earth began. 
The winds with wonder whist. 
Smoothly the waters kist. 

But on the moment that the song of the an- 
gels announced the new gift of God, all nature 
re-awakened to joy and thanksgiving. Beasts 
were given tongues, and many marvels were 
wrought. Shakespeare in his play, "Hamlet," 
shows us that in England during the Middle 
Ages, people believed that these wonders might 
still be seen : 

Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes 
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated. 
The bird of dawning singeth all night long : 
And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad ; 
The nights are wholesome ; and then no planets 

strike. 
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, 
So hallowed and so gracious is the time. 



CHRISTMAS 30I 

In many lands the country people believed 
that on Christmas Eve the cattle and horses 
could speak, and that at midnight they all knelt 
down in praise of the little Child who had once 
been cradled in a manger. 

The custom of giving gifts on Christmas 
arose from the fact that Christ was the great 
gift of God to the world. If one can do noth- 
ing more he can at least give Christmas greet- 
ing to his friepds — a pleasant custom that is 
found in every civilized country. 

In Germany, on Christmas Eve, the whole 
household attends a simple church service. 
The only lights are candles held by the wor- 
shippers, making an impressive scene. The 
service over, greetings are exchanged on every 
side. 

In Servia and Bulgaria a quaint ceremony is 
performed by the head of the house, the first 
thing on Christmas morning. Before break- 
fast some corn is placed in a stocking, and the 



302 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

man sprinkles a portion of it on the doorstep, 
saying ''Christ is born;" to which the others 
reply, **He is born indeed." Then the man be- 
gins a series of wishes. He enters the house 
and, going to the fireplace, strikes the sparks 
from a log — wishing, as each blow is struck, 
good health to the horses, to the cattle, to the 
goats, and so on through all the livestock, end- 
ing up by wishing for a plenteous harvest. The 
ashes are then collected, and a coin is hidden 
away in them. The yule logs are not permitted 
to burn up entirely, but pieces of the burnt ends 
are placed in trees, to ensure a good crop. 

In Norway and Sweden the *'J\x\2iiredy'* or 
peace of Christmas, is publicly proclaimed. 
Early in the morning the children go to the 
church, which has been decorated. Later the 
grown folks attend. After a day of feasting, 
the family group gathers around the fire for 
an old-fashioned telling of stories. 

*'Merrie old England," says Walsh, "was the 



CHRISTMAS 303 

soil in which Merrie Christmas took its firmest 
root. Even in Anglo-Saxon days we hear of 
Alfred holding revelry in December, 878, so 
that he allowed the Danes to surprise him, cut 
his army to pieces and send him a fugitive. 
The court revelries increased in splendor after 
the conquest. Christmas, it must be remem- 
bered, was not then a single day of sport. It 
had the preliminary novena which began De- 
cember 16, and it ended on January 6, or 
Twelfth Night. All this period was devoted to 
holiday making." 

A long book, indeed, might be written about 
the Christmas observances and legends all over 
the world. 

One of the earliest of such holidays in Amer- 
ica is marked by an amusing incident. The 
Pilgrims landed at Plymouth upon the twenty- 
first of December, 1620. It was midwinter. 
The shores were bleak and desolate, and Sun- 
day found them without shelter, yet none 



304 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

thought of working on that day. The next day 
was Christmas, but they went to work with a 
will felling trees and building a common house. 
No one showed that he remembered that it 
was a holy-day ; but the captain of the ship al- 
lowed some slight luxury in the evening ra- 
tions. When the second Christmas came 
around, some young men refused to work upon 
that day, saying that it was against their con- 
science. Governor Bradford allowed them to 
remain at home, but when he returned he found 
them at play in the street, "pitching ye bar and 
such like." In high dudgeon he took away 
their games declaring that it was against his 
conscience that they should play when others 
worked. 

This severity did not relax after the Puri- 
tans came into the colony. All Christmas ob- 
servances were frowned upon. In fact, it was 
more than a century before the repeal of the 
law which provided a fine of five shillings for 



CHRISTMAS 30s 

any person found abstaining from labor, or 
feasting upon Christmas Day. The sturdy 
Puritans of Boston regarded with contempt 
any persons who observed the day by going to 
church or even by eating mince pie and plum 
pudding. 

Nowadays things are very different in New 
England; but in many country towns more is 
made of the Thanksgiving than of the Christ- 
mas celebrations. There are a great many of 
the older people still living, who can tell you 
that as children they never paid much attention 
to Christmas — they never hung up their stock- 
ings, or saw a Christmas tree, or got a single 
present. 

But if you want a real, rollicking, noisy 
Christmas of a different sort, you should visit 
in the Southern States. To all the Southern 
boys and girls it is the noisest, jolliest day of 
the year. "Siss, bang!" go the firecrackers, 
which, for some reason, are set afire on this 



3o6 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

date rather than the Fourth of July. The horns 
toot, the bells ring. Southern folks, you know, 
came of a different stock and had a different 
upbringing, from those of the North. Their 
ancestors were the Cavaliers, a light-hearted, 
pleasure-loving people who brought over with 
them many of the customs which the Puritans 
deemed frivolous and wicked. One of these, 
for example, was the bringing in of the yule 
log. In the days of slavery this was a general 
practice. The slaves were allowed as many 
days holiday as this back-log would burn ; and 
they would not only select the toughest, green- 
est oak log they could find, but would often soak 
It diligently in a neighboring stream. Christ- 
mas on the old plantation was a thing never to 
be forgotten. The darkeys thought that the 
day was invented especially for them, and with 
shining faces they went around saying, 
"Christmas gii\ massa; Christmas gif*, mis- 
sus !" This old custom has been handed down 



CHRISTMAS 307 

to the white boys and girls of today, who, in- 
stead of using any other greeting, rise up early 
and tiptoe about the house calling, "Christmas 
gift!" in the hope of catching the other per- 
son. The houses are decorated with green 
branches, and mistletoe is hung over the door ; 
but the Christmas trees are more often found 
in the church celebrations, while the stockings 
are hung up at home. And such a dinner as is 
provided ! Southern tables fairly outdo them- 
selves to make this the greatest eating event of 
the year. 

The Shakers observe their Christmas by giv- 
ing a general dinner at which the men and the 
women sit down at the same table. This serves 
to mark the day for them especially, as on other 
days the men and women eat at separate tables. 
At sunset on Christmas day, after a long serv- 
ice at the church, they march in a body to the 
community house, where the men sit down on 
one side of the long table, and the women on 



3o8 THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS 

the other. At the head sits an old man called 
the Elder, who asks a long blessing. Now do 
they begin eating, you ask? Not yet! For 
each one in turn gets up and lifting the right 
hand, says in a solemn voice, "God is love." 
They then resume their seats and eat the dinner 
in perfect silence. 

Of recent years in our land the beautiful cus- 
tom is spreading, of having a community 
Christmas tree. New York City took up the 
observance about the year 1910, but was only 
following the lead of some smaller cities, in this 
regard. A central square is chosen — in New 
York it is Madison Square — and a fine large 
tree is set up, and decorated with garlands and 
candles. It is lighted each evening from 
Christmas to New Year, and outdoor chorals 
are sung. It is a visible sign to every passer-by 
that the busy, workaday world is not every- 
thing — that there is a finer spirit abroad, typi- 
fied by the Christ-child — the brotherhood of 



CHRISTMAS 309 

man. In the words of the sweet hymn of Fe- 
licia Hemans : 

Oh ! lovely voices of the sky 

Which hymned the Saviour's birth, 
Are ye not singing still on high, 
Ye that sang, "Peace on earth?'* 
To us yet speak the strains 

Wherewith, in time gone by, 
Ye blessed the Syrian swains. 
Oh ! voices of the sky ! 

Oh ! clear and shining light, whose beams 

That hour Heaven's glory shed, 
Around the palms, and o'er the streams. 
And on the shepherd's head. 
Be near, through life and death, 
As in that holiest night 

Of hope, and joy, and faith 

Oh ! clear and shining light ! 



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